Disability Advocacy Program

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has changed its procedures for dating its notices, decisions, and other correspondence, and relatedly, the agency has also changed its policies about how it calculates its deadlines. Most of the mail sent from the Office of Hearings Operations, including administrative law judge decisions, is processed through a central printing facility. […]

Persaud v. Commissioner of Soc. Sec., 2023 WL 7211823 (2d Cir. Nov. 2, 2023) (Bowes) – court remanded based on ALJ’s failure to consider the “Burgess” factors – including the frequency, length, nature, and extent of the treatment and the medical evidence supporting the opinion of the plaintiff’s treating physician – when evaluating the opinion […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently suspended its processing of many of its continuing disability reviews (CDRs) through the end of its fiscal year 2024. The suspension was announced on June 20, 2024 as a one-time instruction in Emergency Message (EM) 24021 REV. The EM has a retention date of September 30, 2024. SSA had […]

As reported previously in these pages, since 2017, the Second Circuit has issued a series of cases reiterating its previous holdings interpreting the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) prior treating physician regulations. In yet another summary order, the court remanded based on the Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ’s) failure to consider the “Burgess” factors – including the frequency, length, nature, and extent...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently enacted changes in how a claimant’s past work is evaluated at step four of the Sequential Evaluation. As discussed in the April 2024 issue of Disability Law News, Social Security changed the definition of past relevant work. In June, in accordance with its new regulations, SSA released a new […]

How confusing – and frustrating – can it be when a current beneficiary of Supplemental Security Income (SSI)becomes eligible for Title II benefits due to earnings or the death or retirement of a parent, only to be denied and found not disabled on the new application? What about the doctrine of collateral estoppel, that some […]

After significant pressure from advocates, the courts, the media, and Congress, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has scaled back its reliance on select obsolete jobs when making findings of disability. It has been common and maddening to see SSA deny a disability claim by citing obsolete occupations as evidence of the ability to adjust to […]

Recent news stories highlighted the release of over $900 million in underpayments for FY2024 by the Social Security Administration (SSA), as of June 2024. What is behind this significant number? As part of its efforts to advance equity, SSA has focused on ways to reduce Supplemental Security Income (SSI) underpayments and prioritize addressing barriers that […]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has taken more steps towards alleviating the burden of overpayments by updating its policies to increase the administrative waiver tolerance from $1,000 to $2,000. Effective May 13, 2024, when a person requests an overpayment waiver and the total amount of their liability is $2,000 or less, recovery will be waived, […]

On June 6, 2024, the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) reported that it had recently obtained from the Social Security Administration (SSA) section GN 00203.011 of its Program Operations Manual System (POMS), which relates to SSA policies for providing language assistance to beneficiaries. The POMS had not previously been made available to the public […]

The Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning its longstanding doctrine of deferring to administrative agencies when interpreting statutes and regulations has received much media attention. Rarely have the intricacies of administrative law been in the news. But how will Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 144 S. Ct. 2244 (2024), affect those of us who practice administrative […]