My husband filed a Reconsideration form 5 months ago with SSA because they calculated his WEP based on Canadian dollars, rather than converting to US dollars, which subtracted more than the allowed 50% of his benefit. They have not responded, although they insist it is being processed. Is this an unusual amount of time to wait? Meanwhile his SS benefit has been significantly cut as a result.

Hi,

Normally I'd say that 5 months is an unusually long amount of time to be waiting for a reconsideration determination, but I'm sure that the pandemic has taken a toll on the processing times for all types of Social Security operations. If you've checked with Social Security recently and they've told you that your husband's request is pending, then that's probably accurate.

Reconsideration determinations are made by employees in the Social Security regional payment centers, and you can't contact those offices directly. The local Social Security offices can verify on their computers that a reconsideration request is pending at the payment center, but that's about all they can tell you. Information on how far along the request is toward reaching a conclusion isn't available to the local offices.

The only thing I can suggest is to continue to follow up with Social Security periodically, although if it takes a lot longer then you may want to contact the offices of one of your representatives in the U.S. Congress. Sometimes, intervention by the offices of a congressperson or senator can get expedited results.

Best, Jerry