Social Security, Angered By Spending Discipline, Takes Frustrations Out On Taxpayers According To Ohio Newspaper
From the
Tribune Chronicle of Warren, Ohio:
If you need to visit a Social Security office, plan to get there
early. Starting next week, the public can visit Social Security offices
only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays. Beginning in January, the
facilities will close at noon on Wednesdays.
Social Security
officials complain Congress has not given them enough money to
administer the program. In fact, the $10.7 billion Congress provided for
administration is $287 million less than for the previous year.
So,
like many businesses and households in the United States, the Social
Security Administration is having to find ways to tighten its belt.
Agency officials have chosen to take their anger out on the public,
including the millions of older Americans who rely on Social Security.
Could the agency have not done what many businesses have - stagger
employee hours to keep stores and offices open as much as possible for
their customers?
Almost undoubtedly, the agency could have found
ways to avoid reducing office hours. But, like so many government
bureaus, the knee-jerk reaction to spending discipline seems to have
been to take out frustrations on taxpayers. No wonder some of them are
angry.
9 comments:
Actually, I believe they are trying to take it out on members of congress. The Agency is well aware that a certain percentage of its "customers" will inevitably complain to their congressional representatives. The Agency is hoping that the blame will be displaced to those representatives and motivate congress to increase funding in order to avoid the negative publicity.
If the Agency makes cutbacks in a way that is "painless" to the public, then the public will naturally presume that the Agency doesn't need the resources and is sufficiently funded. After all, the public is responsible for electing the legislature that is not providing the funds. Given that, why should the public not suffer any consequences for the policies the people they chose are implementing?
Field offices are closing early to give employees time to finish up their work before their day is over. There is no more overtime. Working in a federal office off the clock is illegal. We are in a hiring freeze because there is no money. Everyday more and more employees are retiring.
This has nothing to do with SSA taking anything out on the public.
If they want us to be able to complete our work in a timely manner, we need more employees and/or more overtime. Thus, more money. We are forced to do less with less...
I completely agree with A10:38. For too long, SSA tried to hide its budget problems by trying to do more with less. By making our problems visible to the public, the better the chances that pressure will be put on the Congress to fully fund the agency. I give COSS a lot of credit for this; previous Commissioners simply went along.
One fact overlooked in the criticism is that the proportion of work in the field office has shifted. Relatively less time is spent dealing directly with the public compared to time spent following up on public contact. The obvious reason is that an increasing amount of public contact is indirect--via internet or teleclaims. These contacts generate follow-up work as much as in-person visits by the public. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that more office resources must be devoted to non public contact work. There are fewer hours for the public to come into the office, but there is less need for them to do so.
Also Anonymous 11:14's comment about off-the-clock work being illegal is not only applicable to government workers. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, it is equally illegal in most of private industry.
Yeah it's just like cities always saying libraries and fire station will be closed if there are budget cuts, like nothing else can be cut. Do what p*sses off the most people.
As 10:38 states, the Agency made targeted cuts out in the field where reductions will be quickly obvious to the public. Other components of the agency have not suffered cuts, and in fact, some (like the Appeals Council) have had enough money to triple in size over the past few years. So it seems more about targeting cuts to certain areas that will generate the most immediate publicity and garner the most public support.
Frankly we are losing people at an alarming rate and the work has not subsided nor will it. I don't like closing early bc it does punish the public. We haven't seen a drop in traffic, so it means the same number of people are jammed into 6 hours instead of 6 1/2 . However with no Ot, an increasing claims workload, work that the public never sees ( wages, med cdrs, paper appeals, more and more third party representatives, etc) something has got to give. Unfortunately for the public it's service. Longer wait times, less calls answered, more delays in payments will happen). It's just part of this budgetary roller coaster we travel.
Also Anonymous 11:14's comment about off-the-clock work being illegal is not only applicable to government workers. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, it is equally illegal in most of private industry.
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It's not at the same. If private worker "A" decides to stay in the office late one night to catch up on work "off the clock" he will likely get a raise or be considered a hard worker.
If govt worker "B" decides to work past 6PM "off the clock", it's considered illegal use of govt property and he could be punished and/or fired.
And, if private worker "A," having worked late off the clock, doesn't like the recognition that his employer gives him, he may go to the appropriate component of the Department of Labor to enforce the law regarding "suffer and permit" overtime.
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