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Dire Need Letter
If you are waiting for a hearing to be scheduled and are in a very desperate or extremely urgent situation, you have the option of sending the Administrative Law Judge a “Dire Need" letter. In the most extreme situations, a Dire Need letter can expedite your claim—hopefully getting your hearing scheduled a few months sooner at the very least.
Some situations that warrant a Dire Need letter include foreclosure on your home, eviction, life-threatening medical situation or insufficient funds for life-sustaining medications, or electricity/water/gas that are about to be turned off due to past due bills. If one or more of these situations apply to you, gather evidence of your situation (invoices, letters from doctors, foreclosure or eviction notices, etc.) and draft a detailed letter to the judge. List your most desperate situations first, and include dates, names, contact information, and anything else that may be convincing—but keep it to the point. Then send it to the ODAR, keeping a copy for your records.
Remember that you are one of thousands of claimants in the same situation, and Social Security workers sort through many such letters. It may take a phone call to verify that it was received, and another a few weeks later to check the status of your request. If it is denied, at least you did everything you could.
If you have a disability attorney, he or she will know how to word the letter correctly and the most convincingly. All you will need is evidence of your situation. For more information, speak with your representative or Social Security.
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