Trying to find a Social Security "administrative message"

April 3, 2015 7:12 AM

What a Dickensian nightmare the Social Security system is! What is its "administrative message" document type, cited as "AM ###[date]" -- where can I find these -- and, if you are a practitioner, what if any force does it have? I have done a fairly diligent search, but maybe I'm out of it today, or maybe it's one of those things that's just part of the lore of a practice area.
posted by mmiddle to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Best answer: Here's an example of how an SSA administrative message works:

Although SSA indicated at that time that its current policies served to prevent any undue hardship or danger to survivors of domestic abuse, it agreed to issue a reminder item to its field offices in the meantime that SSA personnel are required to assist individuals in obtaining evidence and should take into consideration the individual’s circumstances in determining resource availability. (See the March 2005 edition of Disability Law News, which fully discusses the issue and the SSA response.)

SSA has recently done just that. In late December 2005, it issued an Administrative Message (AM) reminding claims representatives to “use particular care and sensitivity when requesting evidence from individuals” who are fleeing from a domestic abuse situation. AM-0521 is available on the Online Resource Center.

posted by Little Dawn at 7:38 AM on April 3, 2015

Best answer: One SSA document characterizes these as a form of "internal communications." You might try an electronic FOIA request.
posted by exogenous at 8:01 AM on April 3, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks for these helps! Upshot: I called the local SSA office, and someone is mailing it to me in paper (after checking to verify whether it was not sensitive).
posted by mmiddle at 8:39 AM on April 3, 2015

Here's the URL of one particular AM on the SSA site:
http://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/audit/full/html/A-09-04-14009.html
If you have the date and number of a particular one you're looking for, does that URL syntax locate it for you?
posted by beagle at 9:07 AM on April 3, 2015