1. a. 

   SSA will provide the Disability Determination Services (DDSs) with written guidelines necessary for carrying out their responsibilities in performing the disability determination function.

2. b. 

   The DDS will comply with the written guidelines in Part 04 of the Program Operations Manual System (POMS) AO 40305.029.

3. c. 

   POMS includes certain policies, procedures, operating instructions, and guides designated as advisory or discretionary.

1. a. 

   The DDSs representative group will be given an opportunity to participate in formulating disability program policies that have an effect on their role in carrying out the disability determination function.

2. b. 

   The DDSs will be given the opportunity to comment before changes are made in written guidelines unless delay in issuing a change may impair service to the public.

1. a. 

   An Intercomponent Review Draft (IRD) is a DRAFT version of a proposed POMS transmittal that authoring components send out for agency stakeholders' review and comment.

2. b. 

   IRDs will be sent directly from Disability Adjudication (DA) to each reviewing component.

3. c. 

   The purpose of the IRD is to ensure that all stakeholders have a forum to submit comments related to specific workloads or policies. An author can request an electronic IRD (eIRD) via the PolicyNet Publication System (PPS).

4. d. 

   Once requested, an eIRD site is established and the system notifies the author via email.

1. a. 

   Normally, 21 days for DDS review.

2. b. 

   If the author prefers a shorter timeframe or has a need to waive the IRD, the author must request a waiver from the applicable Disability Adjudication (DA) component.

1. a. 

   Review for:

   • •

     substance;

   • •

     operational impact;

   • •

     resource impact.

2. b. 

   Complete the eIRD. Written comments may also be submitted in a memorandum or directly on the draft transmittal.

1. a. 

   The eIRD site manager creates a specific page for the IRD (within three working days). The system notifies the author via email when the eIRD SharePoint page is ready, which includes the link to the page. The author checks all the documents within the created page for accuracy and then sends the supplied link to stakeholders for comment.

2. b. 

   Reviewers upload their comments on the eIRD SharePoint page.

3. c. 

   Once the author receives all comments and the eIRD period ends, the request moves to the "Post IRD Authoring" step of the PPS process. At the Post-IRD step, the author reconciles all eIRD comments in PPS.

DA will handle questions and comments received from the DDS.

DA will consider all comments during the preparation of final instructions.