For general availability and DSG questions, please contact the ELU at OHO.NSD.NSS.ELU.General.Inquiries@ssa.gov or 1-866-964-1714 (Monday through Friday) from 8:00am to 5:30pm EST. You can also reference the “Contacting the ELU” tab for more information. For matters involving scheduled cases, you should contact the servicing hearing office/NHC or use the secure messaging function within ERE. Please do not send any case-specific information or other case-specific PII via email. You may email the ELU and refer to a specific hearing office or NHC, the ALJ, and the date and time of a scheduled case so long as the email does not include any claimant PII.

The Agency generally schedules cases on a "first in, first out" (FIFO) basis determined by request for hearing date, unless an exception applies (HALLEX I-2-1-55).

An appointed representative may run a status report for their cases using Electronic Records Express (ERE). Schedulable statuses include cases in the following statuses: Master Docket, Pending Review, Pre-Hearing Review, Pending Folder Assembly, Folder Assembly, Pre-Hearing Development, Pending ALJ Assignment, and Ready to Schedule.

ERE will alert a representative to the office where their cases are pending. A representative may utilize the Hearing Office Locator to identify which regions those offices are located.

If a representative does not enroll in ERAP, they will not be able to submit monthly availability. In these instances, the Agency will consider the representative to be fully available in every region where they have five or more cases pending in a schedulable status. A representative may enroll in ERAP at any time. If a representative does not want to be considered fully available in multiple regions, we encourage them to enroll in ERAP. Once a representative enrolls, they may submit non-duplicative availability for each region where they have five or more schedulable cases pending. Please see the “Getting Started” section in the ERAP home tab on this website for more information regarding enrollment.

Yes, if a representative has five or more schedulable cases in multiple regions, the Agency may schedule them for more than one hearing at the same time in different regions. Although the representative may request a postponement from the assigned ALJ in this situation, the ALJ may decide not to postpone the hearing, as OHO does not consider this to be a scheduling error.

If a representative does not have an EIN, they should state that in their submission.

This decision depends on how a representative chooses to handle their caseload. If a representative’s firm or group typically assigns representatives from within their own firm or group to hearings after a hearing is scheduled, Consolidated availability may be the most appropriate option. However, if a representative is a solo practitioner or their firm's representatives handle cases from start to finish, Solo availability may be the most appropriate option.

Your DSG might include only one affiliated representative (yourself). When providing monthly availability, contract representatives will be considered the DSG’s available representatives. Your DSG should indicate how many representatives will be available to cover hearings on a given day and, if desired, how many hearings each available representative can handle per day. The DSG does not need to provide the names of the representatives at the time you submit availability to the ELU, but they should provide the number of representatives who will be available to handle hearings that month and their specific availability, if desired. For example, the DSG of C. Representative provides that it will have three available representatives each day in August, all for full days, with up to three hearings per day for each representative and a monthly cap of 90 hearings.

In this situation, you must identify yourself as affiliated with the DSG, particularly considering you are the appointed principal representative on many cases associated with the DSG. However, when providing monthly availability for the DSG, you should not include yourself in the monthly count of available representatives unless you plan to appear at some hearings. For monthly availability purposes, you should only indicate the number of representatives available to attend hearings in the Target Scheduling Month (TSM). When providing monthly availability, you are not required to identify the names of available representatives. You only need to provide the number of representatives available to attend hearings in the TSM and the availability for each.

In this situation, it would be appropriate to form two separate DSGs, each with the solo-secondary modification. For example, if Paul Partner is a partner in the firm of Paul Partner & Associates and the principal representative listed on all the Claimant’s Appointment of Representative forms (1696) submitted, and Paul Partner has two associates with distinct caseloads, then the firm may want to consider creating the following two DSGs: Paul Partner & Associates/Abigail Associate and Paul Partner & Associates/Adam Associate. Each month, the firm would submit two sets of availability per each Region as necessary, one for each of the DSGs. If your firm plans to create DSGs in the manner described above, it is critical that the non-principal representative submit a 1696 or similar writing before or concurrent to submitting availability. If at the time that availability is submitted, the non-principal representative has not submitted a 1696, schedulers will not be able to associate a particular case with the availability submitted by the DSG.

No

No, providing a maximum number of cases and/or maximum case cap is optional. We do not accept requests for a weekly cap.

No. For Solo DSGs with a Solo Secondary modification, the non-principal representatives for whom availability will be provided must submit their appointment of representative notice prior to case scheduling. A consolidated DSG would be appropriate in your situation, with the principal representative reflected as the DSG’s affiliated representative. Your practice group may wish to consider your personal availability for hearings when submitting monthly availability for the available representatives for the consolidated DSG.

No. OHO attempts to accommodate geographic preferences for an available representative when scheduling in-person and VTC hearings. However, to ensure timely scheduling of hearings, available representatives may be scheduled for hearings in different geographic locations than requested in the DSG’s monthly availability submission.

No. Geographic preference is not considered when scheduling remote hearings. The geographic preference is only considered when scheduling in-person or VTC hearings.

Please see the chart below.

No, this is no longer an option. Hearing offices will not call representatives to schedule hearings. All hearings will be scheduled using ERAP availability submissions.

Representatives can review the “How to Submit Representative Availability” tab on our ERAP website at SSA's Hearing Process for more information regarding how to submit monthly availability.

The representative will receive an automated reply email confirming receipt of their availability submission.

You can choose to have another individual, such as a scheduling coordinator, submit availability on behalf of your DSG. You may also name a non-representative contact person for the DSG.

If you have less than 5 schedulable cases pending in an individual region(s) or 20 schedulable cases pending nationally, a DSG may choose to not provide availability. Your DSG should submit availability for each region where your DSG’s affiliated representatives have five or more schedulable cases pending. If your DSG does not timely provide availability for a region, you will be considered fully available in each region where you have five or more schedulable cases pending.

A DSG may submit their availability for the Target Scheduling Month (TSM) as soon as it is ready, up to 11 months beyond the current TSM’s deadline. Submissions for subsequent months will not be accepted. However, please note that the Agency expects representatives to consider the number of schedulable cases in each region close in time to the availability deadline for the TSM. Representatives who submit availability more than 10 days prior to a TSM deadline may not have had the opportunity to consider recent case transfers from one region to another. To ensure you are considering recent case transfers when submitting availability for a TSM, and to prevent being considered fully available because you did not submit availability for a region where your cases were transferred, we encourage representatives to submit availability no earlier than 10 days prior to the availability deadline for the TSM and no later than the deadline.

No. Although a DSG can submit availability for up to 11 months beyond the current TSM’s deadline, each DSG must submit separate availability.

No. A DSG should only include the start times of hearings when providing availability. If a DSG does include a time range for hearings in their submission, the time range should signify the first start time of a hearing and the last start time of a hearing within that range. The Agency does not accept requested end times for hearings. If the DSG includes a time range in their availability submission, the Agency will consider the end of that range as the start time of the last hearing.

When providing the times of availability, a DSG has some options. A DSG may provide:

• The same availability for all available representatives,
• A full day of availability for all or some available representatives,
• The start time for the first hearing of the day, or the start time for the last hearing of the day, or
• Intermittent availability during the day.

No. However, whether the DSG does or does not include a time zone in their availability submission, the Agency considers any start times included in their availability submission to be in the time zone of the regional office of the region for which the DSG is submitting availability. Each region’s regional office may be located by using the Hearing Office Locator, as needed. The Agency will not convert inappropriately submitted time zones to the proper time zone for the region.¬¬ For example, a representative located in San Diego has cases pending in the Detroit Hearing Office. The Detroit Hearing Office is in Region 5 and their regional office is located in Chicago. The representative will submit availability to Region 5 and will give their available times using Central Standard Time (CST), even though neither the representative's location nor the Detroit Hearing Office is in the Central Time Zone.

Yes, as the Agency will ensure a sufficient buffer is left between hearings, as applicable. A DSG does not need to include a request for buffer time in its monthly availability submissions.

No. Manner of Appearance (MOA) designations should be handled on a case-by-case bases through normal channels and is not part of the ERAP process.

No. The Agency does not accept conditional requests for start times of hearings. If a DSG includes conditional start times in their availability submission, the Agency will consider the earlier of the times provided to be the start time of hearings for the day.

No, providing a maximum number of cases and/or maximum case cap is optional. The Agency does not accept requests for a weekly cap.

Yes, a rep may request a change to their DSGs availability. If your DSG submitted availability timely, they may submit a request to change their DSG’s availability. Requests to modify timely submitted availability must be sent to the appropriate ELU regional availability email box. Please include “Modification” as well as the TSM, DSG name and region in the subject line of the email. DSGs should send changes to the appropriate ELU Regional Availability email box as soon as the DSG is aware of the change in availability. The Agency may be able to accommodate modifications of your DSG’s availability if the modification request is received by the end of the same month that availability is due for a TSM. For example, March availability is due October 1. DSGs that timely submitted availability by October 1 may request modifications to March availability until October 31 for consideration. If your DSG timely submitted availability by the TSM’s deadline, we will attempt to accommodate requests to modify availability received after the end of the month that availability was due for the TSM. If your DSG’s modification request is to add additional days or times of availability, or add additional available representatives, we will always be able to accommodate that request. However, if your DSG is requesting to remove previously submitted days or times of availability, or remove previously identified available representatives, and that request is submitted after the end of the month that availability was due for the TSM, we cannot guarantee that we can accommodate the modification request. Generally, the earlier a modification request is received, the more likely it can be accommodated. Once scheduling information for a hearing, including the day and time, appears in Electronic Records Express (ERE), even if the hearing has not yet been noticed, requests to remove availability for the scheduled date and time cannot be accommodated. In that instance, if the representative chooses to request a postponement, they must send the request to the assigned ALJ once the Notice of Hearing has been issued.

Yes. If you have cases in more than one region, and do not want your DSG’s available representatives to be considered fully available for hearings in more than one region, you must provide separate availability for each applicable region and submit availability. Please note that schedulers consider a representative’s availability regionally and do not consider availability provided to other regions while scheduling cases. Accordingly, please do not provide duplicate availability for multiple regions, as this will lead to double-booking.

A DSG must submit separate availability monthly emails for each individual region to the appropriate ELU regional availability mailbox. The ELU will not process availability submissions that are sent to incorrect email boxes and will not forward misrouted availability submissions to the correct regional availability mailboxes. It is the DSG’s responsibility to ensure availability is submitted to the appropriate mailboxes. If a DSG does not timely submit availability to the appropriate mailbox, the DSG will be considered fully available in each region where the DSG’s affiliated representatives have five or more schedulable cases pending.

No. Your DSG should exercise care when submitting availability to each region. Some DSGs are arranged to where they have multiple different individuals who will attend hearings in the same or different regions. Accordingly, OHO is unable to ascertain whether the same availability submitted to multiple regions is correct or an error on the part of the DSG. Therefore, it is the DSGs responsibility to submit the correct availability to each individual region.

If your DSG provides the same availability to all regions, the DSG may be “double-booked” as each region operates independently and uses the availability provided to them. OHO does not know whether the available representatives submitted to one region are the same as the available representatives provided to another region. If the DSG has two different individuals who will attend hearings in the different regions, the actual representative appearing at hearings for the DSG would not be double-booked. However, if you are a solo practitioner and you submit the same availability to each region, or if you are in a Consolidated DSG and submit the same availability for the same available representative in more than one region, the solo practitioner or available representative may be concurrently scheduled (double-booked). Please be mindful that OHO does not consider this situation to be a scheduling error and may not move the day and time of the hearing if the concurrent scheduling across regions is due to a DSG’s availability submission error. If you are a solo practitioner or know that the same individual representative will be appearing at hearings in multiple regions, we recommend that your DSG not provide overlapping availability to multiple regions.

No, the Agency will not accommodate a DSG’s request to have only in-person/VTC or only remote hearings scheduled on the same day for the same available representative. OHO may schedule both in-person or VTC and remote hearings on the same day for the same available representative. The Agency will ensure sufficient buffer time is built in to allow a representative to travel between different locations. For instance, if an in-person hearing is scheduled earlier in a day, and a remote hearing later in the same day, the Agency will ensure there is sufficient buffer time to account for the hearing and travel time to the second location. The DSG does not need to include a request for buffer time in their monthly availability submission.

Generally, an available representative will only be scheduled for one physical location per day for in-person or VTC cases. There may be exceptions to this general guidance if there are two hearing offices is in close geographic proximity. The Agency will not accommodate a DSG’s request that we do not schedule in-person hearings at different geographic locations on the same day.

A representative should provide availability commensurate with the number of claimants you represent, monitoring both the number of newly acquired claimants and those currently waiting for a hearing to be scheduled. You should provide sufficient availability for OHO to schedule hearings in a manner that keeps pace with the number of claimants you agree to represent and with the number of schedulable cases pending without delaying the Agency’s ability to schedule your clients’ cases. Please keep in mind that OHO no longer has a “backlog.” OHO is currently positioned to offer hearing dates to most cases as soon as manner of appearance development is completed, if a representative provides sufficient availability.

If a representative/DSG does not give sufficient availability, the ELU will contact you by email and/or phone to request the additional availability be provided. We will communicate using the scheduling contact information associated with your DSG. As it is explained in the email, the representative will have five (5) business days to provide additional availability. The Agency asks that you submit additional availability to the appropriate email box promptly. You will be able to provide us information regarding additional available days and/or additional available representatives by email for the Target Scheduling Month (TSM). If we do not hear from you after five (5) business days, we will send you a second follow-up email. If no response is received after another five (5) days, we will schedule additional cases as appropriate, based on our request for additional availability. We will attempt to accommodate the additional availability on the days you previously identified as available for the TSM. However, if you did not provide us additional days or representatives to cover the additional hearings we need to schedule, we may schedule hearings for days and times that you did not indicate as available for your DSG. Providing insufficient availability may lead to possible disciplinary action.

If you believe your DSG timely submitted availability for a TSM, but received an email stating that the DSG will be considered fully available due to a failure to timely submit availability, you should call the ELU at (866) 964-1714 or send an email to the ELU General Inquiries email box at: OHO.NSD.NSS.ELU.General.Inquiries@ssa.gov. If contacting us by email, you must provide documentation of your DSG’s timely submitted availability. You must include “Correction Needed” in the subject line of this documentation email.

In limited circumstances, OHO may share the availability that your DSG provided to one region with a different region. The region-to-region transfer of availability may occur when OHO transfers cases between regions after the availability due date for a TSM. On a limited and case-by-case basis, OHO may also transfer specific days and times of availability from one region to another if another region’s availability allows a case to be scheduled earlier. These types of availability transfers will not add any additional availability to the monthly availability a DSG provided, will not increase a DSG’s total maximum hearing caps across all regions, and will not result in scheduling your available representatives for dates and times that the DSG did not provide. Rather, these limited availability transfers simply move availability from one region to a different region for remotely held hearings. If a representative is scheduled for hearings in a region for which they did not submit availability or are scheduled for hearings in a region in excess of the monthly hearing cap they provided to that region, it is likely due to a transfer of availability between regions. Rest assured that if you are scheduled for several hearings in one region that exceeds your monthly hearing cap for that region, the maximum cap you provided to another region has been proportionally reduced. If you have any questions about representative availability transfers, please contact the ELU at OHO.NSD.NSS.ELU.General.Inquiries@ssa.gov. or call (866) 964-1714.

The NHC shares the availability your DSG provides to each region. A representative does not need to send separate availability for cases pending with the NHC. However, as NHCs generally share representative availability with the region where the case originated, DSGs should consider their schedulable NHC cases, and where the cases originated, when assessing how much availability to provide for a region.

You should count it as a schedulable case in the region to which it was transferred. You should not count it a schedulable case in the originating region.

If you encounter this issue, please reach out to the ELU as soon as possible after you receive notice of the case transfers.

The Agency recommends that a representative monitors their cases in Electronic Records Express (ERE). Once a case has been scheduled in our case processing system(s), it will show as being scheduled in ERE. A representative can ensure their availability was considered by cross-referencing the dates and times their hearings are scheduled.

If a representative suspects that they have been double-booked, and a Notice of Hearing (NOH) has been issued for a particular case, the representative should notify the servicing hearing office (HO) or National Hearing Center (NHC) and request for a change in the time or place of the hearing. The representative must direct their request to postpone or change the hearing time or place to the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) assigned to the case. The ALJ has the discretion to decide whether postponement or a change in the time or place of the hearing is appropriate and will take all relevant factors into consideration when deciding whether to grant the request.

If there is a double-booking within one region, or other potential scheduling-related error and the hearing has not yet been noticed, the representative should notify the servicing hearing office (HO) or National Hearing Center (NHC). Please be mindful that OHO does not consider concurrent scheduling (double-booking) across regions to be a scheduling error in instances where a representative has failed to timely provide availability for each region with five or more schedulable cases pending.

Yes, please use these encryption instructions: EMAIL ENCRYPTION INSTRUCTIONS.

No. It is never appropriate to communicate by email if you are including the claimant’s personally identifiable information (PII), even if the email is encrypted.

No, as monthly representative availability submission should not contain any PII. However, emails relating to the creation or modification of a DSG should be encrypted.