SSA makes Electronic Filing a Requirement for Representatives

In January of this year, SSA announced that starting March 16th, 2012, representatives requesting direct payment of fees will be required to file appeals online. This is now part of the "affirmative duties" representatives are required to follow as outlined in the Rules of Conduct and Standards of Responsibility for Representatives.

This is in line with SSA’s goal of increased use of online services, as we saw in the plan for fiscal year 2013-2016. The rule applies to filing Requests for Reconsideration and Requests for Hearing only. Appeals to the Appeals Council cannot be filed online and must be either faxed, mailed or delivered to SSA.

Claimants without representation are not required to follow this rule, but they are still encouraged to use the iAppeal system whenever possible. While the appeal process can sometimes be confusing, the iAppeal system can easily be used by anyone because it guides the claimant through a series of prompts in which information is entered. A claimant can check his or her work before submitting same to SSA.

Once the information is submitted, it is received almost instantly by the local field office through which the claimant applied. A paper SSA-827 (authorization to disclose information to SSA) still must be submitted by either fax, mail or in-person delivery, but SSA hopes to eventually make that part on the online appeal process, as well.

Because filing online appeals is now an “affirmative duty,” failure to do so may lead to an investigation by the Office of General Counsel to find out why a representative is failing to follow the rule. However, there are exceptions:

1.     Some types of appeals cannot be filed online. As already stated above, this does not apply to the Appeals Council. This rule also does not apply to appeals of onset dates, non-disability appeals, paper claims, or technical denials.

2.     If the online system is down, or an error occurs that prevents the representative from filing the appeal, the paper appeal will still be accepted. SSA realizes that a system limitation is not the fault of the representative who was attempting to comply with the rule. 

With this new rule, SSA can continue to move forward with their goals of reducing their carbon footprint, increasing use of online services, and delivering quality disability services to the public. Less paper is wasted, disability claims move faster, and everyone is kept on the same page – even if it is an electronic one!

Written by Anna Westfall & Attorney Andrew November

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