Social Security

Today Social Security released a notice to more than 340,000 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients between the ages of 14 and 17 (transition-aged youth) and their adult representatives to help them identify policies and other resources to assist youth in their transition to adulthood. These mailings include a notice introducing our annual informational publication, What You Need To Know About Your Supplemental Security Income (SSI) When You Turn 18 (Publication No. 05-11005). Caregivers are encouraged to review it with the child, if possible.

This publication helps youth prepare for the transition from school to adult life. It provides information about SSI work incentives primarily affecting youth, as well as information about common programs, services, and supports that parents, guardians, and youth may find helpful.

Specific programs covered include:

• Student Earned Income Exclusion;
• SSI Continued Payments (Section 301);
• Vocational Rehabilitation Programs;
• Department of Education’s Parent Centers; and
• Medicaid -- including the importance of keeping health insurance and having a primary care provider.

The publication can be obtained from the agency’s publication website in both English and Spanish versions.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is leading a multi-agency effort to understand how the services the federal government provides are part of a broader customer journey.

The OMB disability survey is open to individuals with a disability and those who help them. OMB invites participants to share what they have found most helpful, frustrating, and moments that made a difference in their family’s journey.

The survey is anonymous, though you have the option to share an email address if you are interested and willing to arrange an interview to discuss further. You can visit 2020 Federal Customer Experience Journey Mapping Projects to learn more about this important project, including how OMB will use the information participants provide.

In 2021, monthly Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income payments for approximately 70 million Americans will increase by 1.3 percent.

Visit our blog for more details about the COLA increase.

On October 5, 2020, we published a Notice in the Federal Register on the requirement for representatives who request direct fee payment to submit all evidence electronically to the Office of Hearings Operations or Appeals Council for disability cases that have an electronic folder. We will apply the notice beginning on November 4, 2020, 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

The requirement eliminates the need for our staff to process evidence manually and associates it with the correct claims folder, promotes administrative efficiency, reduces the amount of paper evidence that requires physical handling and processing by our employees and contractors, and minimizes errors that may occur through manual processing. While we planned to issue this new requirement prior to the current COVID-19 national public health emergency, pursuing it now is even more critical because contactless transmission of evidence limits the need to handle documents manually.

This requirement will not apply directly to claimants or to representatives who are ineligible for or do not request direct fee payment- they may continue to submit evidence via non-electronic means, but we strongly encourage all parties to use electronic methods for efficiency reasons. The requirement for direct pay representatives constitutes an affirmative duty under 20 CFR 404.1740(b) (4) and 416.1540(b) (4). We may investigate to determine if representatives have violated this duty if they fail to adhere to this requirement. However, we will not reject or delay a claimant's hearing or process a claim differently if the representative fails to comply.

There may be a few situations where case characteristics, our systems, or other limitations preclude a representative's ability to submit evidence electronically. In these situations, we will consider the representative's individual circumstances.

Starting September 19, 2020, we added the ability for Appointed Representatives (ARs) to access their cases pending at the initial and reconsideration levels, including continuing disability review cases. ARs can now view these documents in the Disability Related Development and Medical Evidence sections of the eFolder. These are sections E and F, respectively.

Since 2011, Appointed Representative Services (ARS) has provided the ability for ARs to access their clients’ electronic folders (eFolders) for cases pending at the hearings and appeals levels.

ARs already enrolled in ARS have immediate access to their initial and reconsideration level cases. If an AR cannot access a case at the initial and reconsideration levels, it is likely their SSA-1696 (Appointment of Representative) is not yet processed. They will have access as soon as the field office processes their SSA-1696. As a reminder, ARS will suspend a user’s account when they have attempted to access 10 SSNs in a 24-hour period for which they are not the representative of record (i.e., cases where the 1696s are not processed). ARs who have been blocked from their account should contact the Electronic Records Express (ERE) Helpdesk to have their account unblocked. We strongly recommend ARs keep this limitation in mind when accessing initial and reconsideration cases.

The Office of Hearings Operations will continue the current process of enrolling ARs who have cases pending at the hearings or appeals levels. ARs who only have cases pending at the initial and reconsideration levels are not eligible to enroll at this time.

Please remember ARs have a responsibility to protect the data and information in claimant folders. This includes information about the claimants and their evidence providers (i.e., EIN/TIN).

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we took unprecedented measures to protect both the public and our employees.  These measures included closing our more than 1,400 field and hearing offices to in-person service; allowing our employees to work remotely; and pausing certain actions that could have resulted in a continued reduction, suspension, or termination of benefits or payments under titles II, VIII, or XVI of the Social Security Act (Act).

Beginning on August 31, 2020, we resumed these workloads, including certain hearings-related workloads that had been paused since mid-March, including:

• Continuing Disability Reviews (CDR) and Age-18 Redeterminations hearings and decisions; and
• Non-disability hearings and decisions.

At the same time, we continue to recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic may give rise to circumstances that may constitute good cause for missing an appeal deadline or failing to appear at a scheduled hearing.  On August 31, 2020, we provided guidance to hearings offices that administrative law judges may resume issuing dismissals for late-filing of a hearing or failure to appear at a hearing.

To ensure hearing offices are appropriately issuing these types of dismissals (late filing or failure to appear at a hearing), hearing offices will now develop the record for good cause by issuing a Request to Show Cause for Late Filing or Failure to Appear notice. 

This added step provides one more opportunity, beyond our COVID-19 emergency procedures, for claimants to provide good cause for failure to meet filing deadlines or to appear at their telephone hearings.  In addition to this added step for late-filing/failure-to-appear dismissals, we have temporarily expanded our traditional in-line quality reviews of hearing dispositions to focus on ensuring that dismissals are policy-compliant.