Social Security has issued a new POMS (Program Operation Manual Series) issuance, updating the agency’s policies regarding child relationships and dependence. If you are unfamiliar with POMS, here is a brief description of what it is.
This section of the SSA Program Policy Information Site contains the public version of the Program Operations Manual System (POMS). The POMS is a primary source of information used by Social Security employees to process claims for Social Security benefits. The public version of POMS is identical to the version used by Social Security employees except that it does not include internal data entry and sensitive content instructions.
Please note that this document is intended for SSA employees. It contains technical terms and instructions that will be unfamiliar to you. If you have difficulty understanding these materials, please click on this link to the Social Security Handbook, which is written in plain language for use by the public.
The New POMS Regarding Parent-Child Relationships
This new POMS section reflects changes in our child relationship categories. We will no longer identify children as “Natural Legitimate Child,” “Child of Void or Voidable Marriage,” “Legitimated Child,” or “Illegitimate Child With Inheritance Rights.” These are all children under section 216(h)(2) of the Social Security Act through State intestacy law. As such, these categories are now included in one category called “Number Holder’s (NH) Child Under State Intestacy Law.” This also reflects that many states no longer use terminology such as “illegitimate” and provide avenues for non-marital children to obtain the right to inherit intestate. This new section includes:
- information about the dependency requirement for Title II child’s benefits previously in GN 00306.005, which will be archived with the release of this transmittal;
- instructions on what to do if a child files a subsequent claim following a disallowance for dependency not met;
- instructions on what to do if evidence is received after entitlement making a prior determination of a parent-child relationship questionable; and
- a quick reference chart, similar to the one previously in GN 00306.001B, that shows the child relationship categories, the dependency requirement for each category, the relationship code to be input on the Child Relationship (CREL) screen in the Modernized Claims System (MCS) for each child relationship category, and updated references.
