 When people come in to see me about a Social Security disability claim, they always want to know how long it's going to take and I explain to them that's one of the problems with the system. It's frustrating and it's complex and it's very time-consuming. I estimate for most people that it can take two to three years for them to get in front of a judge for a hearing. When you file a claim for either Social Security disability benefits or supplemental security income benefits, we're putting down a date of your disability. So that's the date that was like the straw that broke the camel's back. You really can't keep working after that. The date of the onset of your disability is a date that determines when you're going to start getting paid because you should get retroactive benefits back to that date assuming that the judge finds you disabled as of that day. If a judge awards you Social Security disability benefits or you're awarded Social Security disability benefits throughout the process with the application and the appeals the paper part of the process you would be entitled to benefits going backwards to the date you became disabled which is the date you had to stop working couldn't keep going any further but you would also be entitled to benefits going forward as long as you remained eligible for either the SSD or the SSI. One of the things we can help you with in filing for Social Security disability navigating this system is to make sure you understand that you may be entitled to benefits going backwards to the date you had to stop working the date you couldn't work anymore as well as benefits going forward there's both kinds that you are going to be eligible for.