Jennifer Cronenberg, Senior Counsel and Director of Legal Information

We are extremely pleased that the addition of the IC/RC report on the ERE has reduced the need to call SSA, allowing our members to focus resources in other crucial areas as you fight for the benefits that your clients deserve. Nevertheless, there will be times when a call to the agency is warranted, and the agency should be meaningfully fielding your calls. Recently, we have gotten a few reports of some DDS and Field Office sites who are refusing to answer representatives’ calls, instead pointing to the information that is available online. This is unacceptable and we have reported these instances to senior staff within the agency. Here is the agency’s official response:

SSA and Commissioner O’Malley recognize the importance of mutual, collaborative communication with appointed representatives and advocacy groups for the greater benefit of those members of the public applying for disability benefits. We have made great strides in offering more transparent access to claim information stored in SSA systems including recent enhancements to Appointed Representative Services (ARS) at the pending initial and reconsideration level. We are continuing to work with state and local DDS and Field Office sites to ensure staff provide quality customer service to all inquiring parties, including appointed representatives.

We understand NOSSCR’s concerns over situations where the customer service may not have met expectations. We are working with regional and state DDS administrators to ensure all parties are aware of the continued need to be responsive to appointed representative inquiries, even with recent change to the ARS.

If any of you continue to experience difficulty in obtaining the information that you need from SSA or DDS, please reach out to me (jennifer.cronenberg@nosscr.org) and provide the following details so that I can report these instances to my contact within the agency:

•          Date and time of the situation
•          Office involved (which DDS/FO)
•          Appointed representative’s office involved (listed representative’s name and RepID number)
•          Description of the inquiry (e.g., claims status check, appointment verification, etc.)
•          Description of interaction with DDS/FO
•          Name of examiner or DDS staff (if possible)
•          Any additional pertinent details