Social Security Evidence Must be Submitted With Bar Code Cover Sheet
In my last post, I described Social Security's new "paperless file system" that utilizes scanned documents rather than paper documents. You may be wondering how written records get into the system.
Social Security uses a bar code system that works as follows: if you have evidence or documentation that you want to submit to Social Security, you must submit the hard copies by fax to a designated number. The first page of any such fax must be a cover sheet with a bar code associated with a particular claimant. Here is what a bar code cover sheet looks like:
Presumably, a Social Security employee at the receiving end uses the bar code to scan the faxed documents into Social Security's system. As noted in my previous post, Social Security scans into TIFF format instead of PDF.
If you are proceeding on your own or if you are a lawyer unfamiliar with the new paperless system, make sure to utilize the bar code cover sheet or you risk delay or loss of your documents.
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Comments on Social Security Evidence Must be Submitted With Bar Code Cover Sheet
Actually it's an automated system, the receiving 'fax' is actually a computer system that assigns the faxed records to the appropriate case's electronic folder using the barcode information. Records can also be scanned & uploaded via the 'Electronics Records Express' website using the information associated with the barcode.
Subhan, I don't doubt your explanation – but I would be interested to know how you know about the automated system. Do you work for Social Security or have other firsthand knowledge?
Don't assume that just because you have faxed the documents in that they are going to hit the file. I did this a few weeks ago and went to the hearing assuming the records were in the file or on the CD. They were not. The judge indicated that there had been problems with the system and let me file my hard copies on the day of the hearing. Lesson to me was to check with the office before the hearing to make sure that what I thought was filed was in fact filed.
I work as a paralegal for an attorney doing SS disability cases. This is how the system was explained to us by the local hearings office during info meetings about the electronic folder rollout and at several other times by workers in the hearings office. The automated system is why it is so critical to include the barcode as the first page of the fax – otherwise the computer system doesn't know which electronic folder to route the file too. Also, ditto to Joseph's comment, we always make sure to notify the ALJ's or his/her assistant that materials have been submitted via ERE or fax to ensure they are both included in the record & noted by the Judge.
They also use recorders of some kind during the hearings instead of court stenographers. According to another web site I have read if the tape ends up being a poor copy, your lawyer can actually use that to show that they have a poor record of your hearing trial if you're denied. If that happens, you automatically get a new trial based on the lack of evidence of the original trial. Who knows if this applies to other records, it's a pretty confusing process to go through.
I was told by ssa that my file was in the Atlanta hearing office and ready to be scheduled , but that it hadn't been scheduled yet. What does ready to be scheduled mean? Does it mean they have all the info they need?