A written request submitted by the claimant or other appropriate person on a paper
appeal form or other document which clearly shows disagreement with the initial determination
or decision, meets the requirement for a writing. For information on Appeals Council
Review requirements see:
A signature is not required on the appeal form.
When an appeal is requested on behalf of a claimant, the FO can accept the documentation
as an appeal from the claimant. As long as no other names or signatures are shown
on the appeal form, and the form appears to have been mailed from the address of record,
SSA assumes the request is from the named appellant. For more information on accepting
request originating from a claimant or other appropriate person see FO Reconsideration
Development of Request for Reconsideration - GN 03102.300 and Preparation of Form SSA-561-U2 (Request for Reconsideration) - GN 03102.225.
If the appeal is generated via the mainframe (i.e., MCS and/or MSSICS), the written
appeal submitted to the FO does not need to be faxed into the CEF. MCS and/or MSSICS saves the documentation in ORS. Transcribe verbatim the information from the
writing into the MCS and/or MSSICS appeals screens, including the entire reason shown on the
form as the reason for the appeal. For concurrent and/or multiple claims, ensure that
the identical reason for appeal is entered into MCS and MSSICS when disability is
the reason for the appeal. Once the claimant’s writing has been documented and stored
in ORS, the paper appeal request can be shredded, whether or not there is a signature
on the form.
IMPORTANT:
Disability Determination Services (DDS) cannot access the ORS to view the reason for
the appeal. The field in eView that the DDS can access accommodates 6000 characters,
so, if the reason for appeal is not duplicated on the SSA-3441, it is very important
for the FO to fully transcribe the reason for the appeal. If the writing is not entirely
legible or too extensive to transcribe verbatim, the writing should be faxed into
the certified electronic folder for viewing by other components.
For appeals that are not processed through the MCS and/or MSSICS appeal screens, fax
the paper appeal into eView if one of the claims is established in EDCS and file the
appeal request in the Modular Disability Folder (MDF).