Social Security Administration – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are announcing the requirement that appointed representatives file certain appeals using our electronic systems in matters for which the representatives request direct fee payment. This is the first service required under the regulation we published on September 12, 2011 (76 FR 56107), Requiring Use of Electronic Services.

This final rule adopts, without change, the interim final rule with request for comments we published in the Federal Register on December 29, 2010. The interim final rule incorporated changes to the Medicare prescription drug coverage low-income subsidy (Extra Help) program made by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) enacted in March 2010. Under our interpretation of section 3304 of the Affordable Care Act, if the death of a beneficiary's spouse would decrease or eliminate the subsidy provided by the Extra Help program, we will extend the effective period of eligibility for the most recent determination or redetermination until one year after the month following the month we are notified of the death of the spouse. The effective date of this provision was January 1, 2011. We also revised our regulations to incorporate changes made by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) which affect the way we account for income and resources when determining eligibility for the Extra Help program. The statute provides that we no longer count the value of any life insurance policy as a resource for Extra Help effective on and after January 1, 2010. As of that date, we also no longer count as income the help a beneficiary receives when someone else provides food and shelter, or pays household bills for food, mortgage, rent, electricity, water, property taxes, or heating fuel or gas. These revisions updated our rules to reflect these statutory changes.

The Social Security Act (Act) states that we may issue a Ticket to Work (Ticket) to disabled beneficiaries for participation in the Ticket to Work program (Ticket program). Under our current rules, however, we mail initial Ticket notices to all Ticket-eligible beneficiaries, regardless of whether they are likely to participate in the program, immediately after they begin receiving benefits. We are modifying our rules so that we may send a Ticket to eligible disabled beneficiaries. We will inform all newly eligible and current beneficiaries of the availability of the program via routine correspondence. In addition, we will conduct Ticket outreach to those disabled beneficiaries who are most likely to return to work. We will send a Ticket to any eligible disabled beneficiary upon request, regardless of whether we have identified the beneficiary through our outreach efforts. We expect this change will make the Ticket program more effective. This change does not affect Ticket eligibility requirements.

We are announcing that the assessment percentage rate under Sections 206(d) and 1631(d)(2)(C) of the Social Security Act (Act), 42 U.S.C. 406(d) and 1383(d)(2)(C), is 6.3 percent for 2012.

We are soliciting the input of beneficiaries, recipients, advocates, employment networks (ENs), other professionals, and the general public on the draft revised EN Report Card. An EN is a private or public entity that participates in the Ticket to Work (TTW) program and provides employment services, vocational rehabilitation services, or other support services to Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients who are disabled. The EN Report Card is available at: EN Report Card Page. Disability beneficiaries and SSI recipients who want help with their work goals may use the EN Report Card to help them make informed choices about how to select ENs under the TTW program. The EN Report Card contains performance information about ENs. This information comes from our records, EN records, and beneficiary and recipient's satisfaction ratings of their EN.

Under title II of the Social Security Act (Act), there will be a 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits effective December 2011. As a result of this increase, the following items will increase for 2012: (1) The maximum Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) monthly benefit amounts for 2012 under title XVI of the Act will be $698 for an eligible individual, $1,048 for an eligible individual with an eligible spouse, and $350 for an essential person; (2) The special benefit amount under title VIII of the Act for certain World War II veterans will be $523.50 for 2012; (3) The student earned income exclusion under title XVI of the Act will be $1,700 per month in 2012, but not more than $6,840 for all of 2012; (4) The dollar fee limit for services performed as a representative payee will be $38 per month ($75 per month in the case of a beneficiary who is disabled and has an alcoholism or drug addiction condition that leaves him or her incapable of managing benefits) in 2012; and (5) The dollar limit on the administrative-cost assessment charged to attorneys representing claimants will be $86 in 2012. The national average wage index for 2010 is $41,673.83. This index affects the following amounts: (1) The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) contribution and benefit base will be $110,100 for remuneration paid in 2012 and self-employment income earned in taxable years beginning in 2012; (2) The monthly exempt amounts under the OASDI retirement earnings test for taxable years ending in calendar year 2012 will be $1,220, for years prior to the year in which a person attains his or her Normal Retirement Age (NRA) and $3,240, for the year in which a person attains his or her NRA; (3) The dollar amounts (``bend points'') used in the primary insurance amount (PIA) benefit formula for workers who become eligible for benefits, or who die before becoming eligible, in 2012 will be $767 and $4,624; (4) The bend points used in the formula for computing maximum family benefits for workers who become eligible for benefits, or who die before becoming eligible, in 2012 will be $980, $1,415, and $1,845; (5) The amount of taxable earnings a person must have to be credited with a quarter of coverage in 2012 will be $1,130; (6) The ``old-law'' contribution and benefit base under title II of the Act will be $81,900 for 2012; (7) The monthly amount deemed to constitute substantial gainful activity for statutorily blind individuals in 2012 will be $1,690, and the corresponding amount for non-blind disabled persons will be $1,010; (8) The earnings threshold establishing a month as a part of a trial work period will be $720 for 2012; and (9) Coverage thresholds for 2012 will be $1,800 for domestic workers and $1,500 for election officials and election workers.

On August 2, 2011, we announced in the Federal Register that we were soliciting oral and written comments at two Section 504 Self- Evaluation Forums. We stated that the deadline for written comments was October 31, 2011. We are extending the written comment deadline by 15 days to match the date we publicly announced at the August forum. Deadline for Comments: To ensure that your written comments are considered, we must receive them no later than November 15, 2011. Written Comments: If you are not available to participate real-time in the public forums, we encourage you to submit written comments by Internet, fax, or mail. If you submitted oral comments at a public forum, you may also submit additional comments in writing. In your submission, please state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA- 2011-0035 so that we may associate your comments with the correct document. Caution: You should be careful to include in your comments only information that you wish to make publicly available. We strongly urge you not to include in your comments any personal information, such as Social Security numbers or medical information. Internet: We strongly recommend that you submit your comments via the Internet. Please visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at https://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function to find docket number SSA-2011-0035. The system will issue a tracking number to confirm your submission. You will not be able to view your comment immediately because we must post each comment manually. It may take up to a week for your comment to be viewable. Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966-2830. Mail: Address your comments to the Office of Regulations, Social Security Administration, 107 Altmeyer Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401. Comments are available for public viewing on the Federal eRulemaking portal at https:// www.regulations.gov or in person, during regular business hours, by arranging with the contact person identified below.

In accordance with 20 CFR 402.35(b)(1), the Commissioner of Social Security gives notice of the rescission of Social Security Ruling (SSR) 97-2p.

We are amending our Tax Refund Offset (TRO) and Administrative Offset regulations. We are conforming our regulations to those of the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) for the following reasons: Treasury removed the 10-year limitation to collect delinquent debts owed the United States by reducing eligible Federal payments, and more States are participating in reciprocal agreements with Treasury to offset State payments, including tax refunds to reduce or extinguish a federally owed debt. These changes will allow us to collect additional Federal debt.

We propose to give adjudicators the discretion to proceed to the fifth step of the sequential evaluation process for assessing disability when we have insufficient information about a claimant's past relevant work history to make the findings required for step 4. If an adjudicator finds at step 5 that a claimant may be unable to adjust to other work existing in the national economy, the adjudicator would return to the fourth step to develop the claimant's work history and make a finding about whether the claimant can perform his or her past relevant work. This proposed new process would not disadvantage any claimant or change the ultimate conclusion about whether a claimant is disabled, but it would promote administrative efficiency and help us make more timely disability determinations and decisions.

We are revising our rules to require that claimant representatives use our electronic services as they become available on matters for which the representatives request direct fee payment. In the future, we will publish a notice in the Federal Register when we require representatives who request direct fee payment on a matter to use our available electronic services. We are also adding the requirement to use our available electronic services on matters for which the representative requests direct fee payment as an affirmative duty in our representative conduct rules. These revisions reflect the increased use of technology in representatives' business practices. We expect that the use of electronic services will improve our efficiency by allowing us to manage our workloads more effectively. These rules do not require claimants to use our available electronic services directly; they only require their representatives to use the services on matters for which the representatives request direct fee payment.

We are publishing the process we follow when we ban an individual from entering our field offices. Due to escalating reports of threats to our personnel and our customers in our offices, we are taking steps to increase the level of protection we provide. We expect that this rule will result in a safer environment for our personnel and members of the public who use our facilities, while ensuring that we continue to serve the American people with as little disruption to our operations as possible.

We are revising our rules to implement amendments to the Social Security Act (Act) made by the Social Security Disability Applicants' Access to Professional Representation Act of 2010 (PRA). We are making permanent the direct fee payment rules for eligible non- attorney representatives under titles II and XVI of the Act and for attorney representatives under title XVI of the Act. We also are revising some of our eligibility policies for non-attorney representatives under titles II and XVI of the Act.

We are revising our regulations to reflect our use of electronic case processing at the initial and reconsideration levels of our administrative review process. Our prior rule required adjudicators at these levels to complete a Form SSA-538, Childhood Disability Evaluation Form, in all cases of children alleging disability or continuing disability under title XVI of the Social Security Act (Act). However, we developed and now use a Web-based tool that assists our adjudicators in making disability determinations in several States, and we plan to expand its use to other States. We are revising our regulation to reflect the new tool. We are not changing the requirement that State agency medical and psychological consultants must affirm the accuracy and completeness of their findings of fact and discussion of the supporting evidence, only the manner in which they may provide the required findings and affirmation. We expect that this revision will improve our efficiency by increasing our use of electronic resources.