On May 21, 2020, the federal Office of Strategic and Digital Communications at the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced temporary (COVID-19) procedures to allow claimants to use different methods to sign the “notice of appointment of a representative and fee agreement”, if the fee agreement was submitted with the new notice of appointment.

The agency said that while these procedures are in place, if SSA receives an appointment document, and if the claimant’s original signature does not appear to be a wet signature, SSA will make three attempts to contact the claimant to verify their identity and confirm the signature.

If SSA can verify the identity and signature, the office will process the appointment. If it cannot, the office will return the paperwork to the person who submitted it and indicate that SSA is not recognizing their appointment.

SSA also has temporary procedures in place permitting claimants to verbally appoint a representative during a “remote” telephone hearing with an administrative law judge. However, the claimant must subsequently submit a written notice of appointment of the representative. In this situation, SSA will also accept an alternate format of the claimant’s signature on the written appointment notice.

Please click here to learn more about these temporary procedures.