The Austin Social Security Offices and the Hearing Office Each One Uses

Which Social Security office serves an Austin ZIP code?

It depends on the side of town. Social Security's office locator assigns each ZIP code it lists to one field office, and the Austin area is divided among four. Some ZIP codes cross county lines and assignments can change, so look up your own street address in the locator rather than relying on the city name in your mailing address.

Two Austin ZIP codes, 78717 and 78729 in far northwest Austin, go to Georgetown rather than to either Austin office.

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Addresses, Phone Numbers and Directions for the Four Offices

The locator lists all four as open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on weekends.

• Austin: 1029 Camino La Costa, Austin, TX 78752. Phone 1-866-627-6991, fax 1-833-515-0511.

• Austin South: Building B, 5508 US-290 W, Austin, TX 78735. Phone 1-855-221-3523, fax 1-833-950-2398. Its directions say Building B is a standalone building behind Building A and suggest entering "SSA" in a GPS app rather than the street address.

• Georgetown: Suite 150, 3010 Williams Drive, Georgetown, TX 78628. Phone 1-877-531-4699, fax 1-833-950-2386.

• San Marcos: Suite 200, 900 Bugg Lane, San Marcos, TX 78666. Phone 1-866-388-8515, fax 1-833-950-2385. Its directions say to take I-35 exit 205; heading south, turn left on Highway 80, and the office is on the right in the shopping strip.

Mail works differently from the street address at all four. For each one the locator gives a processing center as the mailing address: Social Security, NRC / FO plus the office code (813 for Austin, 00Y for Austin South, E45 for Georgetown, E44 for San Marcos), PO Box 416000, Kansas City, MO 64141. When you answer a notice, use the return address printed on that notice.

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What an Austin field office handles and what Texas DDS decides

A field office takes the application and checks the eligibility points that have nothing to do with your health, 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 the state Disability Determination Services to decide the medical question.

In Texas that is Disability Determination Services, part of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. It usually requests records from your own doctors and clinics first and can schedule a consultative examination when those records are unavailable or not enough. Texas law also limits what those providers can charge you: under Health and Safety Code section 161.202, a provider may not charge a fee for records that you or your representative request to support an SSDI or SSI application or appeal when the request includes the agency's confirmation of the application or appeal; section 161.203 then gives the provider 30 days to furnish the record.

Reconsideration, the first appeal after a denial, generally must be requested within 60 days after you receive the denial; you can file it online, by phone, by mail or in person, 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.

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Which hearing office takes an Austin disability appeal

Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is set by the claimant's residence address, and the agency's hearing office lists assign each field office's area to a hearing office. For the Austin office on Camino La Costa, the sources agree: the hearing office list behind the hearing office locator, Appendix F of the agency's privacy notice for hearing records and the office's own locator record all point to the San Antonio hearing office at 10222 San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78216.

The other three offices are where the records part ways. The hearing office list puts Austin South, Georgetown and San Marcos under the Dallas (Downtown) hearing office, at Suite 2300, Harwood Center, 1999 Bryan Street, Dallas, TX 75201. Appendix F lists all three under San Antonio instead, and the locator records for those offices link them to San Antonio as well. While the records disagree, go by your Notice of Hearing, which names the office holding your case. You can also ask, in a signed statement giving your reasons, to have the case transferred to another hearing office, and Social Security decides whether to do it. Social Security's hearings manual also lets it reassign some cases to another hearing office to relieve a temporary workload imbalance or increase productivity, and the office that receives a case notifies you and your representative.

Which hearing office has your case does not by itself settle how you attend; the Notice of Hearing states the way you will appear. 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, and 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. Our San Antonio disability lawyer page covers that hearing office, and our Austin disability lawyer page covers representation for Austin claimants.

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Pflugerville, Dripping Springs, Round Rock and the edges of the metro

The office map does not follow city limits. Pflugerville, Manor, Elgin, Del Valle and Bastrop all go to the Camino La Costa office in north Austin, so for those towns the sources agree on San Antonio as the hearing office. Dripping Springs goes to Austin South. Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Hutto, Taylor, Lago Vista, Spicewood and Marble Falls go to Georgetown, and Buda and Kyle go to San Marcos. Dripping Springs, through Austin South, and every town or ZIP code assigned to Georgetown or San Marcos fall in the group where the records disagree.

That makes the Notice of Hearing worth reading closely in every ZIP code assigned to Austin South, Georgetown or San Marcos. A move between two of these areas can change your field office, so update your address with Social Security and look up the new one in the locator. Our Texas disability lawyer page maps the hearing offices across the rest of the state.

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