The Social Security Administration recently published its final Rules of Conduct and Standards of Responsibility for Appointment Representatives. Typically when Social Security changes rules related to representatives who assist disability claimants, the new rules create problems for the representatives and these new rules are no exception.
The rule change that could create the most difficulty for a representative is as follows:
“Only withdraw representation at a time and in a manner that does not disrupt the
processing or adjudication of a claim and that provides the claimant adequate time to find new representation, if desired. A representative should not withdraw after we set the time and place for the hearing (see §404.936) unless the representative can show that a withdrawal is necessary due to extraordinary circumstances, as we determine on a case-by-case basis.”
Social Security’s justification for this rule change is as follows:
“Although the vast majority of representatives conducting business before us on behalf of
Social Security beneficiaries and claimants ethically and conscientiously assist their clients, we are concerned that some representatives are using our processes in a way that undermines the integrity of our programs and harms claimants.”
Basically this new rule could make it extremely difficult for a representative to withdraw from a claim once the hearing has been scheduled. Because Social Security can take up to two years to schedule a hearing a lot can change with a case by the time the hearing is scheduled. A claimant could have returned to work or even not be located and contacted about their hearing. If a representative can’t locate and contact a claimant they can’t update medical evidence in preparation for a hearing and many times a claimant fails to show for their scheduled hearing. This new rule would require a representative to withdraw from a claim much earlier than they normally would and is not typically beneficial to the claimant and certainly not the representative. The new rules go into effect 30 days after they were published.
