Generally, it's taking 4-5 months for ILR applications to be processed - I think at the moment, they are dealing with applications submitted around April 2014.
I don't think that using the Settlement Checking Service will speed it up by a whole lot, because they still have to get through all the applications submitted in the last 4 months first before they can look at yours.
We have a thread where people can post their processing times here:
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=61433.870 (this page has the most recent ones posted on there).
Even using the Checking Service, people have still been waiting about 4 months for their visas - members who applied in Feb/March using the SCS just received their visas in June/July.
