Service standards

The Social Security Tribunal (SST) has service standards for processing appeals. Our service standards set an expectation for how many days it should take us to complete appeals under typical circumstances.

Type of appeal	Service standard
Employment Insurance General Division	Final decisions made within 45 days from filing of appeal 80% of the time Final decisions made within 15 days of the hearing 80% of the time
Canada Pension Plan — disability, other Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security / Guaranteed Income Supplement General Division	Final decisions made within 70 days of the parties being ready for a hearing 80% of the time Final decisions made within 30 days of the hearing 80% of the time
Employment Insurance Appeal Division	Decision on permission to appeal made within 45 days from filing of appeal 80% of the time Final decisions made within 150 days from the date permission to appeal was given 80% of the time We don’t have a formal service standard for making a decision after your hearing at the Appeal Division, but you can typically expect: A final decision made within 60 days after your hearing
Canada Pension Plan — disability, other Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security / Guaranteed Income Supplement Appeal Division	The process for Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security appeals at the Appeal Division changed on December 5, 2022. New service standards will be in place by April 2024. Until then, we will report the average numbers of days to get permission to appeal and to get your final decision.

Exceptions

We may not be able to meet our service standards in the following situations:

Constitutional (Charter) cases
group appeals
late appeals
cases with added parties
cases where adjournments or extensions of time have been granted

Other factors that may affect our ability to meet our service standards include:

a surge in the volume of cases
the complexity of certain cases
the availability of SST members

Service standard results

We track how well we meet our service standards and we publish our results 4 times per year.