Mar 24, 2022

Online Protective Filing Tool Released

     From a recently released Emergency Message: 

A. Purpose
This emergency message (EM) provides policy guidance and processing instructions for handling protective filings established by the Online Protective Filing Online Protective Filing tool which was released into production on March 19, 2022.
 

B. Background
... The Online Protective Filing tool is a public-facing web tool to submit a request for an appointment to file for benefits and record a protective filing date for individuals who cannot contact us by phone or does not wish to utilize existing Online Services, such as the Internet Claim (iClaim) Application. The request can be submitted by an individual interested in benefits for themselves, or on behalf of certain other individuals. Upon submission, a protective filing date is established. The Online Protective Filing tool fills gaps in existing online methods for establishing a protective filing date for (or on behalf of) potential claimants of any age interested in receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  

The Online Protective Filing tool is targeted to individuals interested in filing for SSI. The Online Protective Filing tool will:

    · Collect responses to preliminary screening questions,
    · Determine the applicable Title II and Title XVI claim types,
    · Establish Title II and Title XVI protective filing dates, and
    · Provide appropriate closeout language for both Titles (in certain situations).
 Once the appointment request is submitted, the Online Protective Filing request is sent to the Enhanced Leads and Appointment System (eLAS) to create a record for further action. If the individual does not complete all required fields to submit the Online Protective Filing inquiry, or the submission fails, no data is saved or sent to eLAS, and no protective filing date is established. ...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Band Aid on a sucking chest wound.

jehu said...

And typical for SSA these days I just tried it with a client and received this message:
"We cannot process your request at this time.
Please try again later, or if you need immediate help to schedule an appointment, please contact us."

Anonymous said...

Just another workload for the already overstretched FO.

Anonymous said...

The lead is entered into ELAS but someone in the FO actually needs to go in and schedule an appointment. They haven't figured out who at the FO will be doing this yet and secondly this will eat up all the appointments so don't expect getting a call before mid-May.

Anonymous said...

9:18

You are being exceptionally complimentary... I'd say this is like treating a gash on the forehead with a tourniquet...

Tim said...

Isn't this more like "just take a pill for it." when you need dialysis? I mean, what does it really do? Putting lipstick on a pig?

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to hearing from customers who actually use the tool instead of the gaggle of critics here.

Anonymous said...

Here is what I see...

Here is a new tool for protective filing that you the number holder have to do all the steps because we are not going to answer the phones and make the entries into the system that would have protected you because we are working from home, and petting our dog and doing the laundry is way more important than getting your benefits started with the proper date.

Anonymous said...

I like it so far, we shall see how it is administered. I have made two appointments so far, fairly simple, better than calling the FO twenty times and waiting on hold and being disconnected. So far, so good. Once it would not allow me to schedule "we cannot process your request at this time", but I called and they set it up. Couples claim anyway, the bane of my existence.

Anonymous said...

It's a good way to protect a filing date. That is valuable. I don't expect that people will actually have their claims taken--or even get scheduled to have their claims taken--particularly quickly, but it's a good thing for SSA to offer. I don't understand why the system needs hours of downtime every night, and I will be curious what percentage of people who start the tool get the error message a previous commenter noted. But protecting filing dates is good.