Don't Tell Anyone! Social Security Can't Answer Its Telephones

This is basically a repeat of some information from a January 4 post, but I think it is worthy of another look. Many of the people who read this blog are involved with the hearing process at Social Security. They are well aware of the backlogs and delays at Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), but Social Security's budget and staffing problems go well beyond ODAR. Some of the most indisputable evidence of Social Security's terrible budget problems is outside ODAR.

Read over the excerpts below from a report of a recent conference call between Social Security officials and the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, on the subject of answering the telephones at Social Security. Think about what kind of turnover Social Security must have at its teleservice centers and what a year long hiring freeze will mean for Social Security's ability to answer its telephones. What kind of service will the Social Security Administration be able to give by September 30, 2007, when this fiscal year ends? Also, think about this question, why did Jo Anne Barnhart, who was Commissioner of Social Security until a couple of weeks ago, not publicize the agency's problems answering its telephones, even when she was in the midst of a struggle to get adequate funding for Social Security? She had clear evidence that service at Social Security was already at a level that any Congressperson would have to agree is unacceptable, but even as she was threatened with a budget that would take the service situation at Social Security from an unacceptable level to a crisis level, she could not bring herself to tell Congress or the American people about the situation. The damning information has to come out of an organization that few people have ever heard of.

From FY 05 to FY 06 there were 1 1/2 million more calls coming in to the agents[at Social Security teleservice centers that answer Social Security's 800 number calls]. ...

Rick [Warsinskey, president of NCSSMA] reported how FO [Field Office] managers report that many calls go unanswered in the FOs. The most recent report states FO’s got 67.8 million business related calls in FY 2005. He asked if there was any possibility of getting more FO calls routed to the 800# either by Forward on Busy (FOB) or publishing the phone number in the phone book. Do the TSCs [teleservice centers, which answer the 800 calls] have the capacity for handling these additional calls?

OTS [Office of Telephone Services?] responded that the TSCs are beyond capacity. The targets are at 330 seconds to answer a call. The target busy rate is 10%. If we sent more calls to the TSC we could seriously degrade the service we are giving now. There is no capacity for that work in the TSC nor is there any capacity to handle it in the FO. The TSC targets are way higher than the private sector. One difference is that SSA will busy you out. Private sector will not busy you out.

Companies in the private sector have goals like: answer 80% of the calls within 20 seconds. They are competition and profit driven and that adds to their drive. SSA is no where near that. Even our 10% and 330 second targets are hard to meet. Since the beginning of FY 07, we haven’t met our target more than 20 days.