Program Operations Manual System (POMS)

The POMS are the Social Security Administration’s interpretation of the law, organized into the various programs, such as SSI, SSDI, etc. and then under various topics. {See,https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/partlist!OpenView.} The POMS do not have the force of regulations, which are promulgated under an administrative agency’s formal grant of authority, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires what is known as notice-and-comment rulemaking. Although not given the force of a regulation, courts have tended to defer to the interpretation of law embodied in the POMS.