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     The form SSA-1696 is the form that those of us who represent claimants before the agency must get our clients to sign so that the agency accepts that we have the right to represent them. It's a very basic form for us. Social Security has a new version of the form but there's some serious weirdness about accessing it. Try the link that Social Security has given . If you click on that link with your desktop you get the old version of the form (unless they've already corrected the problem). Click on that link with your cell phone and you get the new version of the form. Can anyone explain that to me? I'm sure that's not what Social Security intended.      I've used my cell phone to download a copy of the new form and I've uploaded it to a service so you can use this link to download the new form regardless of what computer you're using.      The new form asks for the attorney or representative's ID, which is different than o...

     From EM-2004 issued on Friday: We are publishing a revised Form SSA-1696, Claimant�s Appointment of a Representative. The revised SSA-1696 incorporates information from the Form SSA-1695 and the Form SSA-1696-U4 and has two new supplements: SUP1 (Claimant�s Revocation of the Appointment of a Representative) and SUP2 (Representative�s Withdrawal of the Acceptance of an Appointment). The supplements are already available online in fillable format. The revised SSA-1696 updates and reorganizes all parts of the older form SSA-1696-U4, and collects additional information about the appointed representative (AR) from the Form SSA-1695. The consolidation of these forms facilitates the collection of comprehensive data on a single form for faster and more accurate processing. We incorporated the SSA-1695 into the revised SSA-1696 to reduce manual steps, encourage earlier submission of payment information, and minimize loss of personally identifiable inform...

    Tom Margenau has written a syndicated column giving advice on dealing with Social Security. Mostly I agree with him but the column is an example of how something that is good advice for most people can be misleading for others.      Margenau recounts complaints from Social Security employees about claimants who call in to file claims for widows benefits who haven't bothered to find their husband's Social Security number (SSN) before calling. He says to find it before calling. Great advice for most people but what if you can't find that number? What if you were separated and lack access to any of your late spouse's records? What if you're divorced but were married long enough to get surviving divorced spouse benefits? Are you barred from filing a claim since you lack the SSN? No, you can still file the claim. Social Security can look up the SSN. It's certainly better to save their time by finding the SSN if you can but if you can't Social Security ...

     A few years ago, Social Security established an attorney call center, 877-626-6363 , that attorneys could call about problems getting their clients who are under 55 paid. An agency website still lists the number but it's not working. Either you get a fast busy signal or it just rings and rings. It's not like it's hard to get through. It's essentially impossible. Try calling it yourself.      My advice to Social Security is to just take the number off your website and admit that you don't have the personnel to answer your phones. They won't take that advice, though, because it's not politically correct to admit this in a Republican Administration. Exhortations to staff to work harder and smarter are the Republican answer to all staff shortages while taking every action possible to antagonize the staff needed to actually do the work.