Written Statements At Senate Finance Committee Hearing

From the Committee Chairman, Max Baucus:

My staff found that many Montanans who tried to phone the field offices got busy signals for weeks. In desperation, these Montanans gave up trying to telephone the local field offices. They drove hundreds of miles to the offices and back. This is not acceptable.

In 2006, Social Security surveyed people who reached the field offices by telephone. They found that most callers — 51 percent — had encountered busy signals earlier that day.

And the 51 percent figure is only the tip of the iceberg. Social Security could survey only the people who actually got through to the field offices’ automated answering services or to an employee. If you got a busy signal for weeks on end, and never got through, you were not even part of the survey sample. ...

By the end of last year, Social Security indicated that there was already a backlog of 1,000 workyears for the workloads that are being deferred. That’s not even including the deferred medical continuing disability reviews and SSI redeterminations. By the end of next year, that backlog is expected to grow to 8,100 work-years.

From the Ranking Member, Charles Grassley:

I recently instructed my staff to begin a comprehensive review to identify ways to reduce administrative complexity and improve program integrity [at Social Security]. This is an ongoing effort that is still in progress. I hope to introduce legislation before the end of this summer.

From Linda McMahon, Deputy Commissioner for Operations (somebody screwed up since her statement still has a "Draft" watermark on it):

Although the President's budget will allow us to process more continuing disability reviews and SSI non-disability redeterminations, we still will be unable to address as much of this important workload as we did just a few years ago. ... Although the [President's proposed] FY 2009 budget will allow us to make important strides in core areas, the backlogs of our less visible work, which is generally performed after an individual is approved for benefits, will continue to grow.

This sounds like she thinks her agency needs more money than the President proposed.

From Rick Warsinskey, Past President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations:

We are very skeptical that any computer program could be designed to fully substitute for the in-depth review and analysis that our Claims Representatives conduct for claimants filing for benefits. Again, we are discussing a quarter of a million dollar worth of benefits and the options on selecting these benefits are varied and can be very complicated. Would individuals turn over investing their own money to a computer without any human analysis? We don’t believe SSA has developed a thinking computer, we are nowhere close. We do believe that new estimating software being produced by SSA can assist in educating the claimants on their choices. But this should be backed up by someone who is an expert at providing this assistance. ...

A key concern we have at this time is that there is intense pressure on our employees to increase internet utilization in SSA at the same time the back end of the product we receive isn’t fully ready for prime time. Once a tested and proven internet claims product that works better is released it would be more appropriate to market and try to increase utilization. But all claimants should have the choice to file a claim on the internet and not be pressured to do so. We are aware of instances where some claimants come into a Field Office to file but are encouraged to go back home and file their claim on the internet. We believe this practice is occurring to meet intense pressure to attain internet percentage goals that are often set at regional and area levels.

From Witold Skwierczynski, President of the American Federation of Government Employees National Council of Social Security Administration Field Operations Locals:

Employees who work on the SSA front lines and interact with the public are assigned impossible workloads. They are expected to increase their productivity, interview more and more claimants, maintain a high level of accuracy, provide friendly and compassionate service when interacting with the public while Congress and the President not only assign more programs and workloads to the Agency but do so while reducing staff. Dedicated veteran employees are fed up with the deteriorating stressful work environment and count the days till they can retire. SSA changes priorities and engages in crisis management efforts to plug the rapidly multiplying holes in the dam. ...

SSA staffing shortages have encouraged 3rd party businesses to fill the void and offer to assist claimants in their interactions with SSA. Such assistance, of course, is for a price. Few claimants attempt to navigate the SSA hearings appeal system without representation. However, SSA has plans to encourage and assist 3rd parties in expanding the menu of services that they offer claimants for a fee. ...

SSA asserts that 2.5 million electronic transactions were completed by the public in FY 07. However, a substantial number of these electronic transactions were problematic to the degree that SSA employees were required to recontact the transactor. SSA employees are very concerned about the direction of the Agency strategy toward unreviewed Internet transactions because few Internet applications are completed accurately and, consequently, require recontact by SSA employees.

Barbara Bovbjerg of the Government Accountability Office also testified. It is impossible for me to copy anything from her report. Read it online, however.