A disabled individual has the right to receive written notification of:

• •

  any determination made on their case,

• •

  the reason(s) for the determination, and

• •

  their appeal rights if the disabled individual disagrees with the determination.

Public Law (P.L.) 96-265, section 305 requires that the Social Security Administration provide personalized notices, on disability determination that are in whole or on part unfavorable to primary claimants, beneficiaries and recipients.

References to the disability determination service (DDS) in these instructions also apply to the federal case processing units in program service centers (PSC) 1 through 6, ODO (railroad cases) and OEIO (foreign claim cases). OEIO will contact foreign beneficiaries and should use the appropriate modified language, which deletes references to the field office (FO) and includes the appropriate OEIO contact information, see DI 28095.105.

A copy of all notices must be included in the file. Current appointed representative and authorized disclosure procedures apply.

DDSs should use independent judgment to decide what information to include in the notices not covered by these instructions, provided such judgments are consistent with notice standards outlined in DI 26535.036A.

For instructions on preparing a notice for situations not fully covered by instructions, see NL 00603.020.

NOTE: The DDS may contact the assistant regional commissioner –management operations support (ARC-MOS) for assistance on any issue. If the issue occurs with some regularity, the DDS should also submit a written request to the ARC-MOS outlining the issue, the problem it is causing and the solution the DDS believes to be best.

We listed instructions for some special cases; see the referenced subchapters in this chart: