Texas social security disability
Texas Disability Lawyers: One State Agency Decides the Medical Question, Ten Entries Decide the Appeal
The medical decision on a Texas disability claim is made by a single state division based in Austin, wherever in the state you live. The hearing stage is the opposite of that: ten entries decide Texas claims and three of them sit outside Texas.
The two halves of a Texas claim are organized on opposite principles, and most people never notice because they only see one of them. The first half is the same for a claimant in Brownsville and one in Amarillo. The second half depends entirely on which of ten offices your address routes to, and three of those are in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
1
State division making the medical decision for the whole state
10
Entries deciding Texas claims
3
Of those offices that sit outside Texas
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The first half
Who Makes the Medical Decision on a Texas Disability Claim
A state division working to federal rules. Social Security takes the application and settles the non-medical questions, then sends the file to a disability determination division within the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, based in Austin, which reviews the medical evidence and decides whether the federal definition is met.
Worth clearing up a common worry before anything else: this is a file review rather than an appointment, so nobody is expected to travel to Austin and a claim from El Paso is not handled differently from one filed in Houston.
What the arrangement does mean is that one administration, applying one set of standards, covers thirty million people. When that stage refuses a claim, the refusal is a reading of the file rather than a local judgment.
The second half
The Ten Hearing Offices That Decide Texas Disability Appeals
Organized the other way entirely. Seven sit in Texas: two in Dallas, two in Houston, and one each in Fort Worth, San Antonio and McAllen. Three do not.
Texas exports its corners in four directions. The Panhandle answers to Oklahoma City. Marshall answers to Shreveport, in Louisiana, and the Texarkana field office is listed under Arkansas rather than Texas even though the city straddles the line. El Paso answers to Albuquerque, in New Mexico. For a state this size the surprise is not that it happens but that almost nothing comes back the other way.
Austin is the case people find hardest to believe. The capital has no hearing office, and its field offices are assigned to San Antonio along with Georgetown, San Marcos and Seguin.
The el paso question
Which Office Hears an El Paso Disability Claim in Texas?
It takes an address and a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing here more than almost anywhere else in the state.
Albuquerque is the likely answer and it is the one worth confirming. Social Security's hearing office locator lists the El Paso field offices under the Albuquerque hearing office, and one El Paso entry also appears in the San Antonio list carrying a footnote marker.
Both can be true at once, which is the part people get wrong. The agency does sometimes divide a field office area between two hearing offices and publish the split, so a name appearing twice is not automatically an error in the document.
We check the current assignment against Social Security's own locator on the first call. It takes an address and a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing here more than almost anywhere else in the state.
The ten entries
Every Hearing Office That Decides Texas 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 Texas claims: Dallas (Downtown), Dallas (North), Fort Worth, Houston (North), Houston (West), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio and Shreveport, Louisiana. Oklahoma City and Shreveport sit outside Texas. Dallas also takes claims filed in Oklahoma.
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.
Cities we serve in Texas
Texas Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across Texas. The seven cities below have their own pages. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Texas SSDI Questions: Who Decides, Where, and What It Changes
Who actually decides my Texas disability claim?
Two different bodies at two different stages. The medical question on a new claim goes to a state division within the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, based in Austin, which reviews records and decides whether the federal definition of disability is met. If that decision is appealed to a hearing, the case moves to a Social Security hearing office, and there are ten of those deciding Texas claims.
Does it matter that the state agency is in Austin and I am not?
Not to the decision. The medical review is a file review rather than an appointment, so nobody is expected to travel to Austin and nothing about a claim from Amarillo is handled differently from one filed in Brownsville. What it does mean is that the same standards and the same administration cover thirty million people, which is unusual among large states.
Austin is the capital. Why is there no hearing office there?
Because service areas follow the field office map rather than city size. The Austin and South Austin field offices are assigned to the San Antonio hearing office, along with Georgetown, San Marcos and Seguin. It is one of the larger metropolitan areas in the country without a hearing office of its own, and it changes the calendar governing a case rather than the rules applied to it.
I filed in El Paso. Is my case in Texas or New Mexico?
Both are listed, and it is worth having confirmed. Social Security's hearing office locator puts El Paso Downtown under the San Antonio hearing office, and it also shows an El Paso entry under the Albuquerque office's New Mexico heading, although El Paso is in Texas. A field office area can be divided between two hearing offices by ZIP code, so a name appearing twice is not automatically an error. The locator settles it from an address in a couple of minutes.
Amarillo and Marshall are heard outside Texas. Why those?
Because each sits closer to another state's hearing office than to one of its own. Amarillo, Pampa and Wichita Falls answer to Oklahoma City; Marshall answers to Shreveport, in Louisiana, and the Texarkana field office is listed under Arkansas rather than Texas even though the city straddles the line. Texas exports its corners in four directions and takes almost nothing back, which is the opposite of what a state this size might be expected to do.
With ten offices, is one of them quicker than the others?
Their queues differ and you cannot choose between them. Every office applies the same federal standard, so no office is a better place for a claim on its merits, but each runs its own calendar and Social Security publishes the current average wait for every one. The assignment follows the field office serving your address and is not a preference anybody enters on a form. You can ask Social Security to hear the case at a different office, with the reason in writing, and it decides whether to transfer it.
Not sure which of ten offices has your Texas claim? Ask.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours. Tell us where you filed and we will tell you which office your address routes to. We work from Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations by phone or video. There is no Texas office and none is implied.