I've been on the other side of that fence, having worked 29 years for SSA. The process takes so long because of the large volume of claims. The state agencies who make the disability decisions have to get medical reports in order to make their decisions, which can take a long time in some cases. If the claim is denied, you then can go through the first appeal. If that appeal is denied, it has to go to a hearing before an administrative law judge. A certain president, whom I will not name, recently spent 8 years trying to dismantle the Federal government by not filling judicial positions opened up because of retirement or other reasons. There is a drastic shortage of administrative law judges. Please believe me the employees of SSA really try
to help people. Remember, they are working within the constraints of Federal regulations and laws made by Congress. There's no excuse for any SSA employee being rude and if that happens a strong, and I mean strong, complaint should be reported to the office manager and your congressman!