Quote from: Dee Walker on June 11, 2014, 11:36:18 AM
I deal with SSA frequently for work. A staffer there told me that the manuals sitting on a shelf are literally 5 feet long. He recommended that, if you're ever denied by them you should ask what rule the denial was based upon. Either they'll give it to you and you have a basis for getting it reviewed or, more likely, they'll reverse their decision. No one can possibly know all the rules of SSA, even if they work there.
Speaking as someone who spends more time in SSA offices than in what's supposed to be my own workplace, you aren't kidding. Their rules are the POMS--Programs Operations Manual System--and asking for the specific cite from POMS goes a long way towards either changing their mind or figuring out what else you need to give them. The good news is that they're available online. Records maintenance POMS are RM something, RM 10212 is a section on name change, and RM 10212.200 (for example) is the rule describing requirements for changes other than the name, while RM 10212.095 talks about required evidence for name changes. RM 10212.200C is a sample letter for gender change, although I don't see a date on there. I understand I might have some link problems, but googling RM 10212.200 or whatever works very nicely if you remember the space.
Incidentally, part of the problem dealing with SSA is that someone might be a specialist in SSI or whatever. They're human, they make mistakes even in their own domain occasionally. Where things really get exciting is when they start drafting people to work the front window and you have an RSDI caseworker trying to figure out how this name change thing works. If you know where to do your homework going in, the odds of him truly knowing more about it than you do can be pretty long. More importantly, the odds of you being able to show him his own handbook telling him how to process your request let you get it done before he gets frustrated and finds some way to make you go away and stop bothering him.
The sample letter from SSA's website, if anybody is interested:
(Physician's Address and Telephone Number)
I, (physician's full name), (physician's medical license or certificate number), (issuing U.S. State/Foreign Country of medical license/certificate), am the physician of (name of patient), with whom I have a doctor/patient relationship and whom I have treated (or with whom I have a doctor/patient relationship and whose medical history I have reviewed and evaluated).
(Name of patient) has had appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition to the new gender (specify new gender, male or female).
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the forgoing is true and correct.
Signature of Physician
Typed Name of Physician
Date
