All documentation and evidence (medical and non-medical) needed to support the disability
determination must be stored in the EF. This is true even if they were originally
scanned or generated to the Paperless Processing Center (PPC) system. Following this
requirement will house the disability material in one place where it will be accessible
by all SSA users. This includes:
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Both medical and work issues;
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Appointment of representatives and fee petition/agreement documents;
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Attorney fee petition/agreement decision by the ALJ; and
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Items having to do with the effectuation of the determination (for example, an SSA-559)
and post-entitlement program output will continue to be stored in PPC.
NOTE: Examiners and technicians should distinguish between items that require short-term
vs. long-term retention and ensure that the appropriate PPC retention is set for them.
The Paperless User Guide contains instructions for identifying which actions have
short-term or long-term retention and how to change the retention criterion. Also,
see GN 01085.030D.
SSA has identified a list of documents that are stored in the disability folder. Every
document type has an assigned default MDF section. (For example, medical evidence
of record defaults to the Medical Records section of the EF.) For a complete list
of document types identified in the EF, refer to the Electronic Folder Document Type
Chart as shown in DI 81020.040.