Nov 21, 2014

Americans Demand Local Field Office Service

      Poll results reported by the Strengthen Social Security Coalition:
A majority of Americans want to be able to call or visit a local Social Security field office for various services. The vast majority of Americans — regardless of party affiliation, race/ethnicity, gender and age — believe that we need to have more or the same number of local field offices in the future. 
57 percent of people want to be able to call or visit a local office to request a new Social Security card. 
  • 35 percent of those surveyed would prefer to call a local phone number to speak with a live agent. 
  • 22 percent said that they would like to visit a local Social Security office in person. 
  • 24 percent would prefer to call a national 800 number to speak with a live agent. 
  • 11 percent prefer using the internet or email. 
  • 7 percent of participants prefer using an automated phone service. 1 percent would like to correspond through the mail and 1 percent are unsure of their preferred method. 
59 percent of people want to be able to call or visit a local office to get information when they are one or two years away from retirement . 
  • 33 percent of those surveyed would prefer to call a local phone number to speak with a live agent. 
  • 26 percent said that they would like to visit a local Social Security office in person. 
  • 21 percent would prefer to call a national 800 number to speak with a live agent. 
  • 12 percent prefer using the internet or email. 
  • 5 percent of participants prefer using an automated phone service. 1 percent would like to correspond through the mail and 1 percent are unsure of their preferred method. 
61 percent of people want to be able to call or visit a local office when it was time to actually apply for retirement benefits.
  • 32 percent of those surveyed would prefer t o call a local phone number to speak with a live agent. 
  • 29 percent said that they would like to visit a local Social Security office in person. 
  • 19 percent would prefer to call a national 800 number to speak with a live agent.
  • 13 percent prefer using the internet or email. 
  • 5 percent of participants prefer using an automated phone service. 1 percent would like to correspond through the mail and 1 percent are unsure of their preferred method. 
86 percent of Americans want more or the same number of local field offices in the future. 
  • 44 percent believe there should be more local field offices in the future 
  • 42 percent believe there should be the same number of local field offices in the future 
  • 8 percent believe there should be fewer local field offices in the future 
These results are from a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling who surveyed 1,207 registered voters on November 14 - 16, 2014.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course they do. They would also like to return to free television, private pensions, interest on their savings, schools that educate, politicians with integrity and competence...feel free to add on. What a useless poll.

Anonymous said...

additionally...they would like rich people to pay for these services.

Anonymous said...

Does the poll also report all phone calls answered by a real person on the 2nd ring, with action processed within 4 hours of contact to resolve all issues? How about only 5 minute waiting times to see a CR or SR once you arrive at an office? Do people also want 100% accuracy of payments, all workloads processed within 1 day of final receipt of evidence, etc. etc. etc.? How about these requirements put in place for all government offices? Of course, at no additional expense!

Anonymous said...

Maybe Obama could issue an executive order to make all those things happen.

Anonymous said...

I'm curious how many who responded
was disability claimants and beneficiaries. As one,i encourage ssa to quickly implement more online features such as case status and case location.

Anonymous said...

We don't have enough staff. The Internet sounds great and it works for some things. For a lot of things, it just creates work fifth the field office employees to resolve with recontact. Something we don't have time to do.