Pennsylvania social security disability
Pennsylvania Disability Lawyers: Reconsideration Came Back in 2019 and Added a Second Denial Letter
From 1999 Pennsylvania ran without a reconsideration step, so a denied claim went straight to a hearing request. Social Security restored the step in April 2019. A denial now goes back to the state agency for a second review before any judge sees it.
That change matters more than an extra form suggests. It puts a second denial letter in front of Pennsylvania claimants who, for twenty years, never received one, and the letter arrives at the point where people are most likely to stop. Nine hearing offices decide Pennsylvania claims, and eight of them are in the state.
9
Hearing offices deciding Pennsylvania claims, one of them in West Virginia
2019
Year reconsideration returned, after two decades without it
3
Hearing offices covering Philadelphia alone
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What changed in 2019
Why Pennsylvania Disability Claims Now Have an Extra Appeal Step
What returned is not a formality, and it is not a rubber stamp either.
Because Social Security ended a test that Pennsylvania had been part of since 1999. Ten states ran without the reconsideration level, meaning a denied claimant asked for a hearing as the first appeal rather than a second look by the state agency. Social Security's inspector general records the phase-out: five states in January 2019, Pennsylvania in April 2019, Alabama and Michigan that October, Missouri and Alaska in 2020.
So Pennsylvania spent two decades on a shorter path, and the guidance written during those years is still out there. A denied claimant here who follows it asks for a hearing, which is no longer the next step, and the sixty days to request the correct appeal keeps running while that gets sorted out.
Reconsideration is a fresh review of the whole file by an examiner at the state agency, with any new medical evidence you have supplied since the first decision. What returned is not a formality, and it is not a rubber stamp either. The stage exists to catch claims that should have been allowed the first time, and new evidence strengthens it, though the reviewer re-weighs everything already in the file either way.
What the second letter costs and what it buys
What Two Denial Letters Mean for a Pennsylvania Disability Claim
They mean a longer road to a judge and a real chance of not needing one. Social Security's inspector general measured both sides in a report covering closed periods. In fiscal year 2018, reaching an allowance from an administrative law judge took about 924 days on average in states that had reconsideration, against about 845 days in states that did not, so the step added roughly eleven weeks to the longest route.
The other side is the part worth planning around. Claimants allowed at reconsideration in the 2015 cohort waited an average of about 310 days for that allowance, hundreds of days less than the hearing route took. A claim that can be won at the second review is won far sooner than one that waits for a judge.
Here is where the risk actually sits in this state. Of the claimants denied at reconsideration in that cohort, the inspector general estimated about fourteen percent took no further action at all, and most of those who did appeal or file again later received an allowance. Those are national figures for a closed period and they say nothing about how any particular claim will end. What they show is that the second denial letter is the point where a share of people stop, and stopping is the one outcome nothing can be done about afterward.
Where your case is decided
Which Hearing Office Decides Your Pennsylvania Disability Claim?
Uniontown, in Fayette County, is assigned to the Morgantown hearing office in West Virginia, the only Pennsylvania field office heard outside the state.
One of nine, and which one follows the Social Security field office that serves your address rather than your county or your distance from a courthouse.
Eight sit inside Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Philadelphia East in the city, Elkins Park to its north, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and Seven Fields in the northwest. Philadelphia alone is covered by three of them, and the split runs by field office rather than by neighborhood, so two people a few blocks apart can answer to different offices.
The ninth is in another state. Uniontown, in Fayette County, is assigned to the Morgantown hearing office in West Virginia, the only Pennsylvania field office heard outside the state. Erie makes the opposite kind of move without leaving it, grouped with the northern Pittsburgh suburbs at Seven Fields, at the far end of the state from where those claimants live.
The nine offices
Every Hearing Office That Decides Pennsylvania Disability Claims
Hearing offices
9decide this state's claims
Service area lines name Social Security field offices rather than cities or counties, which is how the assignment is actually made.
Nine hearing offices decide Pennsylvania claims: Elkins Park, Harrisburg, Johnstown, Morgantown, West Virginia, Philadelphia, Philadelphia (East), Pittsburgh, Seven Fields and Wilkes-Barre. Morgantown sits outside Pennsylvania.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office and updates it monthly, so check the office that takes your claim.
Before any judge sees it
Who Reviews a Pennsylvania Disability Claim Twice Before a Hearing
Social Security takes the application and decides the non-medical parts, then sends the file out for that review and takes it back.
A Pennsylvania state agency does, once at the initial decision and again at reconsideration. Social Security takes the application and decides the non-medical parts, then sends the file out for that review and takes it back. Since 2019 that agency handles the second look as well, which is the piece of the restored step people miss.
The practical consequence is about evidence rather than procedure. A second examiner reading the same records that produced the first denial has little reason to reach a different conclusion, so the reconsideration request is worth as much as the new material attached to it. Records from the months since the first decision, a treating source statement, an updated functional picture: that is what gives the stage something to work with.
What representation costs is worth knowing before you decide whether to keep going, because cost is one of the reasons people stop after a second denial. It is set by federal law, the same in Pennsylvania as everywhere else.
Cities we serve in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh and Harrisburg have their own pages. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Pennsylvania SSDI Questions: Reconsideration, Hearing Offices and Denials
Pennsylvania went twenty years without a reconsideration step. Does a denial here still go straight to a judge?
It does not, and this is the single most out-of-date piece of advice circulating about Pennsylvania claims. From 1999 the state ran without the step, so a denied claimant asked for a hearing immediately. Social Security put reconsideration back in April 2019. A denial now goes to a second review by the state agency first, and asking for a hearing instead of a reconsideration is usually treated as a reconsideration request rather than lost time, though filing the right one avoids the delay.
Philadelphia has three hearing offices. Which one gets my claim?
The Social Security field office that took your application decides it. Philadelphia Downtown, Philadelphia South, University City, Aramingo, Norristown and West Chester go to the Philadelphia office on Market Street. Germantown, Nicetown, Upper Darby and Chester go to Philadelphia East on Chestnut Street. Philadelphia Northeast goes north to Elkins Park. Three offices, one city, and the split follows the field office rather than the neighborhood.
Erie is closer to Cleveland than to Pittsburgh. Which office takes an Erie claim?
Seven Fields, which sits north of Pittsburgh at the other end of the state. Erie is grouped with Butler, Meadville, Sharon, New Castle and the northern Pittsburgh suburbs, so the entire northwest corner answers to one office in the southwest. Nothing about that changes how the claim is decided, and hearings run by phone and video, which is what makes the distance workable.
My Uniontown notice names a West Virginia hearing office. Is that a mistake?
No. Uniontown in Fayette County is assigned to the Morgantown hearing office, across the line in West Virginia, and it is the only Pennsylvania field office heard outside the state. Morgantown also takes work from Maryland and Ohio. The federal rules do not change with the office, so a West Virginia office applies the same test to a Pennsylvania claim.
The office on my notice says Mars, Pennsylvania. Is that the Seven Fields hearing office?
Yes. The office is named for Seven Fields and its street address sits in the borough of Mars, in Butler County, so notices and mapping apps disagree with each other. It is one office, not two, and it covers the northwest of the state alongside the northern Pittsburgh suburbs.
Pennsylvania claimants now get two denial letters before a judge. Is the second one worth appealing?
For most people yes, and the agency's own numbers are the reason. Social Security's inspector general estimated that in one 2015 cohort about fourteen percent of claimants denied at reconsideration took no further action, while most of those who did appeal or refile later received an allowance. Those are national figures for a closed period and they do not predict any individual claim. What they do show is that the second denial is a stage rather than an ending.
Denied twice in Pennsylvania? That is a stage, not an ending.
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