Readers are always asking me to explain various Social Security rules and regulations. But sometimes they want more. They want to see something official—something in “black and white.” In other words, they want me to give them a legal reference.
I sort of know where they are coming from. Frequently, they have heard one thing from a friend or from a supposedly trusted source, such as a financial adviser or a Social Security representative. And then they read something different in my column or one of my books. I understand their confusion.
So why should they trust me? Well, I’ve been doing this Social Security stuff for more than 50 years now; most of the program’s rules and regulations are just burned into my brain. I will occasionally need to check something out in the Social Security Administration’s “program operations manual system,” which is the primary resource guide for all Social Security Administration employees. POMS takes all of the Social Security laws and turns them into practical instructions for carrying out those laws. Frankly, I haven’t looked at the actual laws for many years now.
Still, I understand that more than a few people would like to see something in writing. Because of the high volume of emails I get, I simply don’t have the time to look everything up for every person who demands to see it in black and white. But if you want to do your own research, I have some bits of advice.
First, I strongly recommend you start out looking in the “Social Security Handbook.” The Handbook is a much shorter version of the POMS. If you printed out the entire POMS, it would fill about 20 big three-ring binders. (I know this for a fact because when I worked for the SSA before an electronic version of POMS came along, I had those 20 binders in a bookshelf behind my desk.)
Anyway, the Social Security Handbook is only about 700 pages and fills just one book on my desk. You can find a pdf version at SocialSecurity.gov. If you’re old-fashioned like me, you can get a hard copy of the book at any bookseller, such as Amazon.
And since I mentioned Amazon, allow me to shamelessly plug my book. It’s an Amazon bestseller and is called “Social Security—Simple and Smart.” It’s a collection of factsheets I have written for my readers over the years. These factsheets explain almost every facet of the Social Security program. It’s much shorter and simpler than the Social Security Handbook, and it is WAY easier to understand than the POMS. And it is so much more convenient to find what you are looking for in my book than to wade through all the Social Security laws.
Having plugged my book, I totally understand that it’s not good enough for some people. They want to see the actual rules and regulations. And if you are not satisfied with the Social Security Handbook, you are going to have to delve into the thousands and thousands of pages of POMS.
You can find POMS online at SocialSecurity.gov. Scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and click on “Research and policy.” On the page that pops up, scroll down until you see a link labeled “Program Rules” and click on it. Once there, you will see four links. You will want to open the link labeled “Employee Operating Instructions.” Then click on “Program Operations Manual System—POMS.” When you open it up, you will see the Table of Contents, which is divided into topics such as “Retirement and Survivors Insurance” and “Disability Insurance” and “Health Insurance” and so on.
And then all I can say is “Good luck!” I’ve been using POMS for more than half a century now, and to be honest, I still have trouble finding exactly what I am looking for.
And for those of you who aren’t satisfied with my book, the Social Security Handbook, or POMS, if you insist on seeing the actual law—well, then, I wish you even more luck. In my 50 years of working on Social Security issues, I think I’ve tried to find an actual law reference only once or twice. But if you really want to, you can find the laws by following the same links I mentioned above for POMS. Once you click on “Program Rules,” you will find tabs for “The Law,” “The Regulations,” and “The Rulings.”
I am not a lawyer, and I certainly am no expert on these matters, but I think in a nutshell, the “Law” is the law. The “Regulations” are subsets of the law. The “Rulings” are subsets of the regulations. And POMS turns all that legal mumbo jumbo into something at least sort of readable. (And to reiterate, my book turns all of that into something very readable and easy to understand.)
Having given you all these instructions for wading through the SSA website to find various laws and rules and regulations, I’ve found that a simple Google search can work just as well. Hint: Always start out your search with the words “Social Security.” For example, say you wanted information on the 10-year duration of marriage rule that applies to a divorced husband or wife trying to get benefits on an ex-spouse’s Social Security record. When you do the Google search, don’t just type in “10-year marriage rule”; make sure you type in “Social Security 10-year marriage rule.” Lots of helpful links will pop up. But if you want a specific POMS reference, then add POMS to your search.
