The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, has issued its February 2007 newsletter. The newsletter is dominated by the issue of staffing shortages. Here are a couple of excerpts from the NCSSMA President's message:
We do not believe SSA is in any position right now to handle more work by telephone. The 1-800 Number is at or near capacity and Field Offices, which receive over 50% more business related calls than the 1-800 Number, are well beyond capacity to answer more calls. Can the Internet relieve Field Offices? In the long run we believe it will provide some relief, but we do not think SSA can significantly ramp up Internet services until the applications provide less back end work for Field Offices. The Internet is not a magical solution. Speeding up the input without attention to how the output will be handled is ill-advised. ...The public is walking through our doors in droves and our phone lines are being overwhelmed. We know what the public wants from us. They want good face-to-face and telephone service. The public has paid for and deserves the best service we can provide. But we must have more resources to provide this service. This is not whining. This is not posturing. It is a plain and simple fact demonstrated every day on the front lines of SSA.
4 comments:
I work in a payment center and our module's backlog has gone up by over 60% since November without overtime. I shudder to think of what the backlog may be by next October if we go that long without OT.
I have a friend working in SSA Systems, working on the EDIB DSI project.Until this week they had a lot of overtime. But as of Monday they were suddenly told to stop working OT. The managers there are trying to get info on what has happened this is the first time in many years SSA systems has been without even emergency OT.
I work at a TSC since the end of FY 2006 we have had no OT and barely anytime for credit hours. Its a good thing that we dont have pending but we could field more calls if we had more time. In my Section alone there are 33 of 75 employee's retiring in the next 6 months. We have not even begun to take applications as no loose date for hiring has taken place. There are 500+ TSRs here and somewhere around 1/3 will be retiring in the next 1 to 3 years. Scary thought if the buget woes will continue.
Yes, as an SSA systems employee, all OT has been cut, due to the status of the budget. Also, no hiring, but lots of plans for applications on the internet. Quality is down the tubes.
The Internet is not going to solve today’s or tomorrow’s problems. Many people that will be applying for regular or disability SSA do not have computers or do not know how to use them. As people become older their ability diminishes to deal with and keep up on basic computer software usage, security programs, virus programs, scams, and computer hardware problems. I have worked with computers for over 30 years, my son is going into the computer field, and his friend works in programming. With all of this computer background it is still challenging to keep up with the computer needs of today. My father could not get through a automated phone answering system to the place he needed to be, and neither can my husband.
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