Readers always ask me to explain various Social Security rules and regulations. But sometimes they want more.

They want to see something official; It’s a “black and white” thing. So they want me to give them a legal reference.

I kind of know where they’re coming from. They’ve often heard something from a friend or a supposedly reliable source, such as a financial advisor or Social Security representative. Then they read something different in my column or in one of my books. I understand their confusion.

So why should they trust me? I’ve been doing this Social Security thing for over 50 years; Many of the rules and regulations of the program are engraved in my mind. I’ll occasionally have to check things out in the Social Security Administration’s “program operations manual system,” the primary resource guide for all Social Security Administration employees.

POMS takes all Social Security laws and turns them into practical instructions for implementing those laws. Frankly, I haven’t looked at the actual laws in many years.

However, I understand that many people want to see something written. Due to the amount of emails I receive, I don’t have time to look at everyone who wants to see everything in black and white. But if you want to do your own research, I have some advice.

I highly recommend you start by taking a look at the “Social Security Handbook” first. The manual is a much shorter version of POMS. If you were to print the entire POMS, it would fill about 20 large three-ring binders. (I know this for sure because when I worked for the SSA, before the electronic version of POMS came out, these 20 files sat on the bookshelf behind my desk.)

Anyway, the Social Security Handbook is only around 700 pages and fills a single book on my desk. You can find the PDF version online at: www.socialsecurity.gov. If you’re old school like me, you can get a hard copy of the book from any bookstore like Amazon.

Since I mentioned Amazon, let me shamelessly plug my book. One of Amazon’s best sellers and its name Social Security – Simple and Smart. A collection of fact sheets I’ve written for my readers over the years. These fact sheets explain nearly every aspect of the Social Security program. It is much shorter and simpler than the Social Security Handbook and MUCH easier to understand than POMS. Finding what you’re looking for in my book is much more convenient than reading all the Social Security laws.

When I plugged in my book I fully realized that wasn’t good enough for some people. They want to see real rules and regulations. If you’re not happy with the Social Security Handbook, you’ll have to dig through thousands of pages of POMS.

You can find POMS online at: www.socialsecurity.gov. Scroll to the bottom of the home page and click “Research and policy.” On the page that opens, scroll down until you see the link labeled “Program Rules” and click it.

Once there you will see four links. You will want to open the link labeled “Employee Instructions for Use.” Then click “Program Operating Manual System – POMS”. When you open it, you can see “Retirement and Death Insurance”, “Disability Insurance”, “Health Insurance” etc. You will see the Contents section divided into headings.

Then all I can say is “good luck!” I’ve been using POMS for over half a century, and to be honest, I still have trouble finding exactly what I’m looking for.

For those of you who are unhappy with my book, the Social Security Handbook, or POMS, if you insist on seeing the real law, then I wish you better luck. In my 50 years of working on Social Security issues, I think I’ve only tried to find an actual law reference once or twice. However, if you really want to, you can find the laws by following the same links I mentioned above for POMS. When you click on “Program Rules” you will find the “Law”, “Regulation” and “Decisions” tabs.

I am not a lawyer and I am certainly not an expert on these matters, but in summary, I think the “Law” is the law. “Regulations” are subsets of law. “Decisions” are subsets of regulations. And POMS turns all this legal nonsense into something at least readable. (To reiterate, my book distills all of this into something very readable and easy to understand.)

After giving you all these instructions for navigating the SSA website to find various laws, rules, and regulations, I found that a simple Google search could also do the trick. Tip: Always start your search with the word “Social Security.”

For example, let’s say you want information about the 10-year marriage rule that applies to a divorced husband or wife trying to collect benefits from their ex-spouse’s Social Security record. When you search on Google, don’t just type “10-year marriage rule”; Make sure you write down “Social Security 10-year marriage rule.” Many useful links will open. However, if you want a specific POMS reference, include POMS in your search.

If you have a question about Social Security, Tom Margenau has two books with all the answers. one is called Social Security – Simple and Smart: 10 Easy-to-Understand Factsheets to Answer All Your Social Security Questions. The other is Social Security: 100 Myths and 100 Facts. You can find the books at: amazon.com or other book outlets. Or you can send him an email at: [email protected]. To learn more about Tom Margenau and read past features and see features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at: www.creators.com.