The Raleigh Social Security Office on Poole Road and the Field Offices Around Wake County

Which Social Security office serves a Raleigh ZIP code?

For Wake County it is almost always the same office. Social Security's office locator assigns each ZIP code it lists to a field office, and the Raleigh ZIP codes below, along with the Wake County towns listed, are assigned to the Raleigh field office at Suite 100, 3315 Poole Road, Raleigh, NC 27610. Some ZIP codes cross county lines and assignments can change, so enter your own street address in the locator before you rely on a list.

The office the locator names usually keeps your file, so it is the office to call about the non-medical side of a pending claim; North Carolina DDS can tell you where the medical review stands. You can file online, by phone, by mail or in person, and a Social Security field office usually takes the application whichever way you file.

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Visiting the Raleigh Social Security Office on Poole Road

The locator lists the Raleigh field office at Suite 100, 3315 Poole Road, Raleigh, NC 27610, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on weekends. The phone number is 1-877-803-6311 and the fax is 1-833-950-2540. Its mailing address in the locator is the same as the street address, so a reply to a notice from this office generally goes to Poole Road, though the address printed on the notice you are answering controls.

Older directory listings for the Raleigh office still show 4701 Old Wake Forest Road. The locator now gives Poole Road, and the phone number is unchanged. Its note for visitors says a representative is available to take your call on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., so calling first can save a trip, especially if you only need to drop off a document or ask about a letter.

The building also holds the Raleigh hearing office, in Suite 200. The field office in Suite 100, not the hearing office, takes applications and reconsideration requests, which you can file online, by mail or in person, and applications can also be filed by phone. Once a claim reaches the hearing stage, the hearing notices come from the hearing office handling the case.

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What the Raleigh field office does and what North Carolina DDS decides

The field office handles the non-medical side. It takes the application, explains the disability rules and checks the eligibility points that have nothing to do with a diagnosis, such as age, work and earnings, marital status and Social Security coverage. Social Security's page on the disability determination process describes that split and says the field office then sends the case to a state agency to evaluate the disability.

In North Carolina that agency is Disability Determination Services, a division of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that makes the medical determinations on Social Security and state Medicaid disability claims. Its claim status line is 1-866-542-8113. DDS usually asks the doctors and clinics that treat you for records first, and it can arrange a consultative examination when those records are unavailable or not enough to decide the claim.

Reconsideration, the first appeal after a denial, starts the same way: you can file it online, by mail or through the field office, and when the denial was medical the review goes back to DDS. A hearing request, after a reconsideration denial, is what moves the case to a hearing office, which for most Wake County residents is the Raleigh office in Suite 200. Our guide to applying for disability covers what to have ready before you file.

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Which hearing office takes a Raleigh disability appeal

The data behind Social Security's hearing office locator puts the Raleigh hearing office at Suite 200, 3315 Poole Road, Raleigh, NC 27610, with a phone number of (866) 708-3174 and office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Its list covers twelve field offices: Ahoskie, Durham, Elizabeth City, Goldsboro, Greenville, Henderson, Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Smithfield, Washington and Wilson.

Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is set by the claimant's residence address, so a Wake County resident is generally on the Raleigh list. The same manual lets you ask, in a signed statement giving your reasons, to have a case transferred to another hearing office, and Social Security decides whether to do it. The hearing itself may be in person, by agency video at a Social Security site, by phone, or by online video if you agree to it. After you request a hearing, Social Security sends a notice of the ways you can attend, and you can object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing within 30 days after you receive it. The Notice of Hearing then gives the format and, for an in-person or agency video hearing, the location. Our hearing office directory lists every office, and our Raleigh disability lawyer page covers representation at the Raleigh hearing office.

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Field offices just outside Wake County: Smithfield, Durham, Henderson and Sanford

Just outside Wake County, the locator sends some ZIP codes to other offices. For Smithfield, Durham and Henderson, the office you call, visit and file with changes, but a hearing request still generally goes to the Raleigh hearing office. Sanford is the exception: it is on the Fayetteville hearing office list.

• Smithfield, 633 Venture Drive, Smithfield, NC 27577: 27520 and 27527 (Clayton) and 27577 (Smithfield). The locator places it near Carolina Premium Outlets. Phone 1-888-527-9331. On the Raleigh hearing office list.

• Durham, Suite 200, 3511 Shannon Road, Durham, NC 27707: 27703, 27707 and 27713 (Durham), 27522 (Creedmoor) and 27514 (Chapel Hill). Phone 1-888-759-3908. On the Raleigh hearing office list.

• Henderson, 858 S Beckford Drive, Henderson, NC 27536: 27549 (Louisburg) and 27596 (Youngsville). Phone 1-877-628-6584. On the Raleigh hearing office list.

• Sanford, 401 Tiffany Drive, Sanford, NC 27330: 27330 and 27332 (Sanford). Phone 1-877-319-5774. This one is on the Fayetteville hearing office list, at 2nd Floor, 150 Rowan Street, Fayetteville, NC 28301.

Mail is the other difference to watch. The locator gives the Raleigh, Durham, Henderson and Sanford offices their own street addresses for mail, but for Smithfield it gives a processing center instead: Social Security, NRC / FO 484, PO Box 416000, Kansas City, MO 64141. A Clayton or Smithfield claimant answering a notice should use the return address printed on that notice rather than the Venture Drive street address.

The locator lists all four offices as open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the same hours as Raleigh. The Sanford office's directions note that parking is limited and phone appointments are encouraged. For the rest of the state, our North Carolina disability lawyer page maps every hearing office and its field offices.

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