Background

We updated this chapter to reflect new organizational structures and nomenclature in the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR). We updated the chapter to reference recent updates in representation policy contained in the Program Operations Manual System (POMS). We also updated the hearing process for representative sanctions to reflect new delegations of authority made by the Commissioner.

Explanation of Content and Changes

We amended sections I-1-1-1, I-1-1-2, I-1-1-3, I-1-1-10, I-1-1-11, I-1-1-20, and I-1-1-30 to reference definitive statements of policy contained in POMS.

We renamed section I-1-1-3 “Notifying Claimants Who Are Not Represented of the Options for Obtaining Representation” by removing the prepositional phrase “by an Attorney” from the title. We reorganized section I-1-1-11 to reflect the electronic environment and added additional information about the forms needed to document representative appointments.

We updated sections I-1-1-40, I-1-1-50, and I-1-1-60 to reflect the current representative sanction process and to reflect new delegations of authority made by the Commissioner.

We removed the exhibit in section I-1-1-90 and provided a hyperlink to the POMS instructions for Form SSA-1128, Representative Involved flag, in section I-1-1-11.

Date: October 13, 2011