Prior to charging or collecting a fee from a claimant or a third party for services provided in any proceeding before the Social Security Administration (SSA), a representative generally must obtain SSA's authorization. To do so, the representative must use one of two mutually exclusive fee authorization processes:

Fee Agreement Process
Fee Petition Process

SSA considers any claim or asserted right under Titles II, XVI, or XVIII of the Social Security Act (Act) that results in the following to be a proceeding before SSA for fee purposes:

• Any initial, revised, or reconsidered determination or action by a field office or processing center; or
  
  
• Any decision or action by an Administrative Law Judge or an Administrative Appeals Judge.

When all of the following conditions are present, SSA need not authorize a fee:

• The claimant and any affected auxiliary beneficiaries are free of direct or indirect liability to pay a fee or expenses, either in whole or in part, to a representative or to someone else, AND-

• The third-party entity that actually pays the representative's fee and expenses, is a business, firm, association, partnership, corporation, for-profit or not-for-profit organization, or a government agency that is paying from its own funds, AND-

• The representative submits to us a form SSA-1696-U4 (or a written statement) waiving the right to charge and collect a fee and any expenses from the claimant and affected auxiliaries, if any, in the form and manner described below:

• Complete Part III of the SSA-1696-U4 by checking the box “Waiving fees and expenses from the claimant and any auxiliary beneficiaries” and providing signature and date, or

• Submit a written statement that clearly and unequivocally states that the representative intends to receive a fee from a third-party entity and that the claimant and any auxiliary beneficiary are not directly or indirectly responsible for payment of the fee; and if eligible for direct payment
  

When we authorize or a Federal court awards  fee based on an approved fee agreement or a fee petition, we will withhold up to 25 percent of the claimant's Title II and Title XVI past-due benefits for direct payment of all or part of the authorized fee, if the following criteria are met:

• The representative or court attorney is registered and eligible to receive direct payment at the time we certify the payment.


• The claimant is entitled to past-due benefits under Title II and Title XVI.


• The representative is eligible to receive direct payment has not waived his or her fee or waived the right to direct payment.


• The entity has properly registered with us.

When we make direct fee payment, the law requires we charge an assessment (a.k.a. user fee) to cover administrative costs. we deduct this assessment from the amount payable to the representative. The representative cannot charge or collect this expense from the claimant.

The assessment is capped at the lesser of either a flat rate dollar amount or 6.3 percent of the amount of the fee payable from past-due benefits. The flat rate dollar amount cap is adjusted periodically based on the cost of living adjustments. For direct payments made to representatives on or after December 1, 2024, the assessment is limited to $120.

When a claimant, affected auxiliary beneficiary, or representative disagrees with the amount of the fee SSA authorized, he or she may protest that determination by requesting administrative review. Under the fee agreement process only, the SSA decision maker may also request administrative review of the fee amount authorized.

Under the fee agreement process, the party requesting administrative review must do so within 15 days of receiving the notice of the determination approving or disapproving the fee agreement or authorizing the amount of the fee. Under the fee petition process, the party requesting administrative review must do so within 30 days after the date of the notice of the fee authorization.

The Act and SSA regulations prohibit representatives from charging or collecting any fee for representational services that SSA has not authorized, or that is more than the maximum amount SSA authorized, except for those fees described in the section, When SSA's Authorization Is Not Required, above.

Any representative found to have charged or collected an unauthorized fee may be suspended or disqualified from practice before SSA until authorized to do so and may be barred from appearing before SSA until full restitution is made to the claimant. The representative may also be subject to fines and imprisonment as specified in sections 206(a)(5) of the Act.

Prior to charging or collecting a fee from a claimant or a third party for services provided in any proceeding before the Social Security Administration (SSA), a representative generally must obtain SSA's authorization.

The regulations at 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1720 and 416.1520 provide that when a third-party entity pays the representative's fee and certain conditions are met, the SSA does not need to authorize the representative's fee. SSA does not need to authorize the fee under the following conditions:

• The claimant and any auxiliary beneficiaries are free of direct or indirect financial liability to pay a fee or expenses, either in whole or in part, to a representative or to someone else; and
• A third-party entity, or a government agency from its own funds, pays the fee and expenses incurred, if any, on behalf of the claimant and any auxiliary beneficiaries; and
• The representative submits to SSA a form SSA-1696 (or a written statement) waiving the right to charge and collect a fee and expenses from the claimant and any auxiliary beneficiaries as specified in GN 03920.020B.3b.

Note: When a representative wants to request a fee from the claimant(s)/auxiliary beneficiary(ies) and a third-party, we must authorize all fees since the above criteria are not met (i.e., claimant or auxiliary beneficiaries are liable for a fee), hence the representative should disclose any payments from a third-party prior to authorization.