From the Sun Journal of Maine:
Thousands of people in the River Valley area, and Oxford and Franklin counties are expected to visit the Rumford Public Library soon for their Social Security needs rather than drive to Auburn.
Late Wednesday morning, representatives from the U.S. Social Security Administration, and Maine offices joined congressional, state and local officials in touting the administration's new real-time video service program.
The program, which allows people to file a claim or complete Social Security business face-to-face via a two-way video monitor with a representative about 50 miles away in Auburn, is the first of its kind to debut in New England, Jennifer M. Bowie, Social Security district manager in Portland, said.
For the record, I have no problem with this for sparsely populated areas. I am afraid that there are some who see this as a way of centralizing service delivery for Social Security. My experience is that Social Security's field operations are vastly more successful than its centralized operations such as the payment centers and the teleservice centers. There have always been those in Social Security management who are mistrustful of field operations and desire greater centralization. I do not understand their thinking.
6 comments:
Just wait til there are no field offices and everyone has to do it this way or on their own on the internet or at booths in a mall..that is the latest proposal.
Oh, don't worry. As soon as SSA even thinks of closing an office, usually an unproductive, infrequently visited small branch or resident station, the locals complain to their Congressman and SSA inevitably backs down. There are a ton of such offices sucking up an inordinate amount of resources.
anon 2--so wrong. The offices that are now "small", like my office, used to be big, but were downsized. Beneficiary census has increased dramatically, so office should be bigger...but, since we are "small", you want to close us. Benes will have to drive 50-60 miles to next nearest office which is just the size we used to be, and they would now have to be twice as big, which they will not be--get the picture? So, it is internet or library cubes for them. Good luck. I'll be retired.
Anon3 (from #2) All due respect, I completely disagree. Do you think businesses feel the need to be in every hamlet in America? Trust me, when I managed a small branch, we easily paid 3 times the going rent in that crappy burg. I understand your need to emulate the Postal Service, but the fact remains that we don't need an office in every ZIP code.
This is the 21st century. SSA should close and consolidate offices that aren't justifying the costs associated with keeping them open. And as for the drive, most Americans never even deal with SSA until they file for RIB or need a new card. That doesn't justify the bloated field network we have now, especially in terms of a gigantic federal deficit. And I'm a small office guy who became the DM of my region's biggest district. I see both sides.
Another example of the type of manager that necessitates having a union. Obviously did not even read my post in detail, just retorts based on his own opinion. Has no idea how the work is supposedd to be done--by real people talking to deserving claimants. What is your cutoff for a field office--30 thousand benes, 40 thousand, a hundred thousand?
Don't worry.
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