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The staff at the Maine DDS office has been furloughed due to the federal government shutdown. The Portland Press Herald has the story.

DDS is the state agency that makes Social Security disability determinations at the initial and reconsideration levels of administrative review. Although DDS workers are technically state workers, the federal government reimburses the state of Maine for 100% of their salaries.  With the shutdown, that money is not forthcoming.

The Maine DDS was already backlogged due to the volume of work. A couple weeks of furlough, should the shutdown last that long (and it's looking that way), will set them back even further.

The SSA has put a plan together detailing what operations will continue and what tasks will not be undertaken in the event of a government shutdown. The SSA has released its Shutdown 2013 Potocol (link opens a 5-page PDF).

Take a look. Charts on page 3 show what activities the Field Offices and DDS offices will continue, and what activities they will discontinue, during the a shutdown.

The chart on page 4 shows the activities the ODARs will continue, and what activities the ODARs will discontinue. Continued ODAR activities are limited to hearing cases and deciding cases. Judging by the long list of discontinued activities, including decision-writing, it seems clear that hearing offices are going to be pretty hard hit in the event of a shut down. Scheduled hearings will continue. But that is about it.

Let's hope it does not last very long. If it does, it's not going to be pretty for those of us practicing in this area.

Update: I stopped by the Portland hearing office yesterday. Hearings are continuing, but the office is in disarray.

As of this past weekend, the status of a representative's claims at the Appeals Council is available through SSA's online Appointed Representative Services. Just go to the Electronic Records Express (ERE) homepage, select "Get Status Reports" and then select "Get Appeals Council Status Report." As with the Hearing Office Status Report, you can choose between a "quick view" report or a spreadsheet.

This is a terrific development. One of the frustrating aspects of dealing with the Appeals Council has been that there was no good way to check the status of a claim. That has now changed.

Write or call each client with a claim at the Appeals Council, and let them know the status of the appeal.

I have written before about the backlog at the Maine Disability Determination Services, particularly at Reconsideration, since initial claims are given priority. Now, some Reconsideration claims are being routed to the Vermont DDS to help ease the work load.

These claims, if denied again at Reconsideration and appealed, will have hearings in Maine. But the Reconsideration rewiew is happening in Vermont, and disability examiners are being assigned much quicker than in Maine.

The status of a representative's claims at the Appeals Council will be added to SSA's online Appointed Representative Services in August. Deputy Commissioner Glenn Sklar made that announcement at the Spring NOSSCR Conference.

This is welcome news. One of the frustrating aspects of dealing with the Appeals Council is that there is not a good way to check the status of a claim. A claim can easily be at the Appeals Council for a year or more, and that is a long time without a way to check status.

Further, no one wants to be at the Appeals Council in the first place, since you ususally get there by appealing an unfavorable decision from an administrative law judge.

I have come to rely on the online system for claims at the hearing level. It will be wonderful to have the same level of transparency at the Appelas Council.

I will be attending the Spring conference for the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR) being held this week in Washington, D.C.

There is almost always something noteworthy to share from the conference, and I will have a blog post or two about it soon.

I look forward to seeing friends and colleagues, and if you are a reader of this blog, please say hello.

As promised, the SSA has updated its online services for representatives to include the name of the administrative law judge (ALJ) assigned to claims at the hearing level.

Just log in to your online services account, go to Electronic Records Express (ERE) Home, and select "Get Hearing office Status Report." Both the "quick view" version and the spreadsheet version of the report now include the name of the administrative law judge assigned to each claim.


The "secret ALJ" policy implemented in late 2011 has come to an end. For the past year and a half or so, the particular administrative law judge (ALJ) assigned to your disability case was not disclosed prior to the day of the hearing. It was a terrible policy, and now the policy has changed.

Ask the name of the judge assigned to your hearing, and the hearing office staff will tell you. Starting the weekend of April 20th, the assigned ALJs will be listed on ARS, the SSA's online service for representatives. After that weekend, hearing notices will include the name of the administrative law judge assigned to the claim.

I am always intrigued by the differing DDS allowance rates among the several states. Take a look at the SSA's table showing 2012 allowance rates by nation, region and state (link opens 3-page PDF).

Is your state above or below the national average? And has the rate changed since last year? Check out the 2011 DDS allowance rates.