The Chicago Social Security Offices: Ten City Offices and Where Each Sends an Appeal

Which Social Security office serves a Chicago ZIP code?

It depends on which part of the city you live in. Social Security's office locator assigns each ZIP code it lists to one field office. Assignments can change, so enter your address in the locator rather than going by a list.

A few assignments are easy to guess wrong. Lincoln Park (60614) goes to the Loop office, while Lakeview (60613, 60657) goes to Chicago North. Pilsen (60608) goes to Back of the Yards, and Hyde Park (60615, 60637) goes to Chicago East. The office the locator names handles the non-medical side of your claim and can answer questions about that part of a pending claim before it reaches a hearing office. You can apply online, by phone or at a field office.

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Addresses and Phone Numbers for the Ten Chicago Offices

The locator lists all ten offices as open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central time and closed on weekends. Hours and closures can change, so check the office's own locator page before you go.

• Loop: 605 W Washington Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60661. Phone 1-866-739-4765.

• North: 2127 W Lawrence Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625, two blocks west of Damen on the south side of Lawrence. Phone 1-877-409-8426.

• Northwest: Suite 600, 4849 N Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 60630, on the sixth floor, with a drop box in the lobby. Phone 1-888-748-7667.

• Near Northwest/West Town: 3260 W Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647. Phone 1-888-456-9540.

• West: 5130 W North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639. Phone 1-866-614-4761.

• Lawndale: 2416 S Pulaski Road, Chicago, IL 60623. Phone 1-877-531-4698.

• Back of the Yards: 5253 S Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60609. Phone 1-877-897-0608.

• East: 6338 S Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, just south of 63rd Street. Phone 1-877-402-0824.

• Southeast: 9715 S Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, IL 60628. Phone 1-888-397-3107.

• South: 9443 S Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60643, near 95th Street. Phone 1-877-409-8427.

Most of these offices list their street address for mail. The West and South offices list a Kansas City, Missouri mailing address instead: Social Security, NRC / FO 498 (West) or NRC / FO 500 (South), PO Box 416000, Kansas City, MO 64141. When you answer a notice, use the return address printed on it. The national number, 1-800-772-1213, can also schedule a phone or in-person appointment.

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Evanston, Oak Park, Cicero and the suburban offices

The locator sends nearby suburbs to their own field offices, all with the same weekday hours:

• Evanston, 2116 Green Bay Road: Evanston, Skokie and Wilmette.

• Mount Prospect, 705 N Wheeling Road: Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Niles, Glenview, Morton Grove, Northbrook, Palatine, Wheeling and nearby towns.

• Hillside, 230 N Mannheim Road: Oak Park, Elmwood Park, Maywood, Melrose Park, Forest Park, Bellwood and Franklin Park.

• North Riverside, Room 600, 7222 W Cermak Road: Cicero, Berwyn, La Grange and La Grange Park.

• Chicago SW Suburbs, 10718 S Roberts Road, Palos Hills: Oak Lawn, Burbank, Bridgeview, Alsip, Summit, Chicago Ridge, Worth and the Palos towns.

• Chicago Heights, 104 S Halsted Street: Harvey, Dolton, South Holland, Blue Island, Homewood, Lansing, Tinley Park, Oak Forest, Park Forest and other south suburbs.

• Hammond, Indiana, 418 E Douglas Street: Calumet City (60409).

Farther out, Joliet takes Joliet, Bolingbrook, Plainfield, Lockport, Romeoville and Orland Park; Woodridge, Bloomingdale, Aurora and Elgin take towns such as Downers Grove, Lombard, Elmhurst, Wheaton, Naperville, Schaumburg and Elgin; and Waukegan takes Lake County towns such as Gurnee, Libertyville and Mundelein.

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What the field office handles and what Illinois DDS decides

The field office checks the eligibility points that have nothing to do with your health, such as age, employment, marital status and Social Security coverage, then sends the case on for the medical decision, as Social Security's page on the disability determination process describes. The state agency usually asks your own doctors and clinics for records first and can schedule a consultative examination when they are unavailable or not enough.

In Illinois that agency is Disability Determination Services, part of the Illinois Department of Human Services. Its service page says it is responsible for determining the eligibility of Illinois citizens to receive benefits under Social Security's disability programs, SSDI and SSI. Applications still go through Social Security, not to the state agency directly.

A request for reconsideration, the first appeal after a denial, must be made in writing, generally within 60 days after you receive the denial notice. Social Security treats you as receiving a notice 5 days after the date on it unless you show otherwise, and if you miss the deadline you can ask in writing for more time and explain why; Social Security extends it only if it finds you had good cause. You can file online, or mail, fax or bring a written request, such as the request form, to a field office. Calling 1-800-772-1213 can start the request, but a call alone does not protect the deadline: the appeal is not filed until Social Security has a written request, though a mailed request counts as filed on its U.S. postmark date if the arrival date would make it late. When the denial was medical, Illinois Disability Determination Services reviews the claim again, with an examiner who did not make the first decision; a non-medical denial, such as one based on income or work record, is reviewed by Social Security. After a reconsideration denial, a written hearing request, also generally due within 60 days after you receive that notice, moves the case to a hearing office.

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Which hearing office takes a Chicago appeal

Which hearing office takes your hearing generally depends on your residence address, and Social Security lists each hearing office's area by the field offices it covers. The hearing office list behind Social Security's hearing office locator, Appendix F of the agency's privacy notice for hearing records and the offices' locator records agree on the split.

• Chicago hearing office: Citadel Building, 19th Floor, 131 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60603, phone 1-866-964-1719. Its list covers the Loop, Near Northwest/West Town, West, Lawndale, Back of the Yards, East, Southeast and South field offices, and a Near Southwest office that the locator's records show as closed.

• Evanston hearing office: Suite 200, 1033 University Place, Evanston, IL 60201, phone 1-866-336-6051. Its list covers Chicago North and Chicago Northwest, plus Evanston, Mount Prospect, Waukegan and offices in northern Illinois.

• Oak Brook hearing office: Suite 201, 2301 West 22nd Street, Oak Brook, IL 60523, phone 1-866-964-7344, for Hillside, North Riverside, Woodridge, Bloomingdale, Aurora and Elgin.

• Orland Park hearing office: 15401 South 94th Avenue, Orland Park, IL 60462, phone 1-877-490-9530, for Chicago SW Suburbs, Chicago Heights and Joliet, among others.

Claimants in ZIP codes the locator assigns to Chicago North or Chicago Northwest, such as Lakeview, Rogers Park and Portage Park, are generally on the Evanston list. The other city offices are on the Chicago hearing office list. Calumet City's Hammond field office is on the list of the Valparaiso, Indiana hearing office.

Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is set by the claimant's residence address. To ask for a different hearing office, give a signed statement of your reasons with your hearing request, which a field office forwards to the hearing office, and Social Security decides whether to transfer the case. A hearing can be in person, by agency video at a Social Security site, by phone, or by online video if you agree to it. You can object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing within 30 days after you receive the notice of the ways you can attend, or later if you show good cause. Social Security can still schedule a phone hearing over an objection in limited circumstances. The Notice of Hearing names the office and the format. Separately, Social Security's hearings manual lets management move a batch of cases to another hearing office to relieve a temporary workload imbalance or increase productivity, and the office that receives the cases notifies you and any representative you have. Our Chicago disability lawyer page covers claims in the city in more detail, our hearing office directory lists the rest, and our Illinois disability lawyer page covers the state as a whole.

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