If you are like many of our clients, you may have recently received a letter from the Social Security administration about the use of Video Teleconferencing (VTC) at your pending Social Security Disability hearing.
You may wonder if you should fill out the form entitled “Objection to Appearing by Video Teleconferencing.”
For individuals who have already requested a hearing, this form offers you the opportunity to decline to have your hearing via video conference. Cheryl’s advice from this earlier post still stands: we believe that with a video hearing you lose some of the important personal connection that you can have in an in-person hearing. It is the first time that you, as an applicant for disability, can be in the same room as the decision-maker and explain to them in your own words what limits your ability to work. We don’t participate in video hearings with rare exception because we believe our clients’ interests are best served by in-person hearings.
For individuals who have not yet requested a hearing, but who would like to retain their right to an in-person hearing, you can’t rely on being sent this form to fill out. Instead, after you request a hearing with an administrative law judge (ALJ), the Social Security Administration will send a “Hearing Request Acknowledgement” that includes a notification that SSA may schedule you to appear by video teleconferencing.
Within 30 days of receipt of this “Hearing Request Acknowledgement”, you will need to submit a written objection to a video hearing. This objection can be as simple as a letter that states “I do not want to appear at my hearing by video teleconference. Please schedule my hearing so that I may appear in person.”
If you notify SSA of your objection to a video hearing within 30 days of receipt of the “Hearing Request Acknowledgement” and you do not move during the wait for your hearing, the current rules say you will be scheduled for an in-person hearing.
These changes are based on a rule published June 24, 2014 by the Social Security Administration. (79 Fed. Reg. 35926).