The Social Security Administration recently informed all judges working in the administrative law area of disability claims review that they are no longer permitted to utilize the internet for independent research when deciding cases. Administrative Law Judges are tasked with deciding if claimants for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income are truly disabled, and therefore, entitled to receive disability benefits.
In the past, many ALJ's have used the internet to conduct research into claimants who appear before them in appeal hearings after being denied benefits by the SSA’s Disability Determination Services office. Judges have queried claimants, reviewing public information on the internet, including photos, videos and comments on social media and other sites, in an effort to determine if those claimants are truly disabled.
If photos, videos and comments posted online show claimants performing or participating in activities that are outside the scope of their proposed physical limitations, judges have called into question the disability status of applicants. Some claims for SSD have been denied based on information found online, with judge's deciding claims for benefits were fraudulent after finding pictures, videos or comments on social media sites in particular.
The new restrictions the SSA has put in place ban ALJ's from using any internet sites, including social media sites, to perform research on disability claimants. The reasons the SSA gives for the ban include privacy protection and the questionable validity of information available online.
With regard to privacy, the SSA references the potential of internet queries to compromise protected, private information of claimants. Additionally, the SSA states that the information available online is sometimes unverifiable and therefore not valid in terms of determining current disability status of SSD applicants.
The SSA’s ban on internet research has some judges and U.S. senators up in arms, claiming the ban severely limits the ALJ's ability to prevent the payout of benefits in fraudulent disability claims. Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn has been quite vocal in criticizing the SSA’s decision, stating public information posted on the internet should be considered as a portion of the evidence in disability cases. Coburn and others in his camp believe such information could potentially prevent the payout of benefits – funded with taxpayer dollars" – to individuals who are not truly entitled to them.
In response to the concerns raised by judges and other public officials, SSA administrators have said information available on the internet is not entirely off limits in eligibility review for disability benefits. It is simply not the job of Administrative Law Judges to research claimants on their own. Fraud investigators who review claims and vet claimants later in the disability process are responsible for researching such information and will continue to utilize the internet in reviewing cases.
According to current SSA procedures, ALJ's are required to decide disability eligibility based on the evidence they have on hand. That evidence includes documentation included in the SSD applicant’s case file, notes and review documentation from DDS workers, statements from medical experts, and testimony from the disability applicant and any witnesses who participate in the hearing.
