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Social Security Administration (SSA) Annual Data for
Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) Payments

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(Updated )

This dataset contains data for fiscal years 2010 onward and is currently available in the following formats:

CSV | XLSX

Background

The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. 2412:

  • authorizes, under certain circumstances, payment of reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses to parties who prevail against the United States in a civil action;
  • provides that payment of legal fees and other expenses applies only with respect to proceedings in which the party prevails against the agency, and only if the position of the government was not substantially justified; and
  • provides that when a representative received fees for the same work under both section 206(b) of the Social Security Act and EAJA, the representative must refund to the claimant the amount of the smaller fee.

A dataset containing payment amounts made by the Social Security Administration for court-approved EAJA payments for fiscal year data from 2010 onward can be downloaded from the box above.

Dataset Index

Dataset Description

This dataset provides dollar amounts for total EAJA payments paid by the agency at the national level from federal fiscal year 2010 onwards.

The dataset includes net payments made in each fiscal year. Payments made in the fiscal year are reduced by collections recorded during the year, even when the collection is against a payment from a prior year. Examples of collections include non-negotiated checks and overpayment collections.

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Data Collection Description

When we receive notice that an EAJA payment amount has been approved by the court, our employees record the payment amount in our financial system using specific codes established for EAJA payments. These amounts are sent to the Department of the Treasury for disbursement to the payees.

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Data Dictionary

Fiscal Year (FY): The 12-month period from October 1st through September 30th.

Total Payments: The court approved EAJA payments for Social Security Administration cases, in dollars.

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