Disability Advocacy Program

The Social Security Administration (SSA) maintains a sex designation for every number holder in its Numerical Identification System, known as the NUMIDENT. While a Social Security card does not display a person’s sex, the sex field in the NUMIDENT appears in SSA records used for benefit administration, identity verification, and data exchanges with other agencies. The sex […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has updated its Program Operations Manual System (POMS) with a new section addressing the treatment of 530A/Trump Accounts  under the income and resource rules for Supplement Security Income (SSI). SSA’s new instruction, POMS SI 01120.250, will exempt these accounts from being counted against a person’s income or resources for purposes of SSI eligibility until January 1 of the calendar year that the child turns 18 years old.   530A/Trump Accounts are a new custodial-style Individual Retirement […]

On July 3, 2026, the Social Security Administration (SSA), through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), released its 2026 Regulatory Agenda. It includes fifteen rules in the proposed or final stages. Notably, the agenda omits two prior proposals that advocates had strongly opposed: the rescission of the public assistance household rule, and the so-called “Mega-Reg” proposal.   It was reported in November 2025 that the agency had backed away from the Mega-Reg. The […]

In May 2026, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that Fifth Third Bank is the new financial agency for the Direct Express program. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service made the selection following its procurement process. As of May 2026, all new enrollments in Direct Express are being processed through Fifth Third Bank.  Current Direct Express cardholders will see […]

The reconsideration stage of disability appeals is regarded by many Social Security disability advocates as a frustrating waste of time, adding several months to an appeal and providing little more than a “rubber stamp” on the initial denial. Recently, new legislation was introduced to allow claimants to bypass reconsideration and proceed directly to a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ).  Reconsideration is a desk review conducted by state Disability Determination Services (DDS), and […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) continues to reshape both the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) (now also known simply as “Hearings”) and its post-entitlement payment operations, reflecting a broader agency-wide strategy of centralizing workloads, streamlining management, and relying more heavily on virtual and national service models as metrics show staffing levels are historically low.  Most visibly, SSA recently announced that it will close its […]

On July 2, 2026, the Social Security Administration (SSA) published a long-awaited final rule comprehensively revising the medical criteria used to evaluate cardiovascular disorders under the Listing of Impairments. The new regulations, published at 20 C.F.R. Parts 404 and 416, become effective October 30, 2026, and will apply to all claims pending on or after that […]

A new audit released in June 2026 by the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that SSA employees and systems made errors in the vast majority of administrative sanction cases reviewed. The audit, Administrative Sanctions and Benefit Withholding (Report No. 042303), reviewed a stratified random sample of 225 individuals referred for potential sanction between June 1, 2017 and […]

A new report from the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Office of Inspector General (OIG) confirms that SSA often spends more money pursuing certain low-dollar overpayments than it ultimately recovers. The audit, issued in May 2026, highlights inefficiencies in the agency’s overpayment collection practices and raises questions about the value of pursuing aggressive recovery efforts against beneficiaries who owe relatively small amounts.  The OIG reviewed a sample of […]