I've been fighting w SS for Divorced Spousal Benefits for 50 months and recently won at an ALJ hearing. The Operations Manager Div1 of SSA sent it to the Appeals Council and they are intent on overturning that decision and deny me DSBs and is now the 30 days in which I had to respond to. I did by fax asking for more time and telling them I intend to further plea my case. Oh how I wish I had read your info before. I applied for DSBs and was told by a Tech Expert to do this I had to File and Suspend. Turns out I was eligible for DSBs just as the law changed but thy cannot use deeming to have applied for both benefits as I applied earlier than April 2016 but are saying I in fact did apply for both and as 1/2 of ex is less than all of mine it is denied. They further state that I had 12 months to withdraw the F&S application only now and quote laws of instance when misinformation dissuades me from applying---so I guess when disinformation had me F&S that now is denying me over 30K in DSB's they do not offer any recourse
Is there any legal rules about this and are there lawyers that can help me especially if I I should then go to Federal Court to try for these benefits. Not only did the TE give me disinformation, so did the Head of that local SSA Office.

Hi,

I don't know of any attorneys to recommend to you, but providing relief to people whose rights are adversely affected by misinformation from an official source is part of the Social Security law and regulations. The rules for establishing misinformation are explained in the following section of Social Security's operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0200204008.

Best, Jerry