East Memphis Office To Close

     From the Memphis Flyer:

If all goes as planned, the Social Security office in East Memphis will close on December 28th, leaving 75,000 beneficiaries with the burden of traveling miles away to receive assistance.

 The East Memphis office, located on Players Club Parkway, is slated to close due to administrative budget cuts.

 The closure is estimated to save $300,000 annually....

On an average day, the office sees more than 150 walk-ins and receives more than 500 telephone calls.  ...

"Much of our administrative costs are to fund our employees and facilities across the country, and these cuts make it challenging to acquire and maintain adequate staffing," said Frank Viera, deputy regional communications director for the Social Security Administration. "Last fiscal year, we lost more than 4,000 federal and state employees, including more than 1,600 field office employees. We cannot afford to replace these employees, and we cannot continue to keep as many facilities operating as in prior years."