From the Washington Post:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is getting heat from inside and outside the agency stemming from scores of field-office closures and poor customer service. ...
In letters to SSA and the General Services Administration (GSA) on Monday, Sens. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) and Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), the chairwoman and ranking Democrat, respectively, of the Senate Special Committee on Aging said, “as some 10,000 seniors turn 65 each day and file for Social Security and Medicare, we should be expanding access to services, not reducing access.”
Instead, Social Security has closed about 125 field offices since 2000 and, the senators said, “service hours at field-office locations have also been cut while wait times have risen and hearing backlogs have grown.” ...
7 comments:
Well the agency got a budget recently including $100 Million for the hearing backlogs. Surely they must already be hiring lots of staff with that money, yes?
@12:54
The $100 million was directed to the Office of Hearing Operations to address the hearing backlogs, a component of the Social Security Administration which does not include field offices. Senators Collins and Casey are largely addressing closure of field offices. There is a single mention of the hearing backlog, but I think the focus of the letter is clearly the field office issues.
Correct, but the article also includes reference to an Inspector General's report that talks about staff shortages in the Hearings Operation. So it is basically a two-part story, one part about problems with field offices and another about problems in hearing offices.
This will all fade into the background once we can rejoice over the Beautiful Wall on the Southern Border. Once the Wall is complete, manufacturing will again dominate the economy. Textiles, appliances, bath-toys,....we will again be the envy of the Industrial World. Pensions will be restored as a mainstay of retirement and all will be well again.
Nay...GREAT Again!
(for those of you of Trumpian bent, yes...I am mocking you.)
Well, during the Obama years space had to be consolidated - square footage was to be cut by serious percentages, both in HQ and in the regions. I bet office closings counted towards that. Let's remember Presidents from both parties along with the Congress have cut and trimmed and cajoled money from teh agency. Cutting real estate is no different.
Just another example of folks who directly or indirectly cut SSA's budget and cry about how the agency chooses to implement those cuts. People and buildings are the two biggest expenditures of SSA, so guess what two categories of spending have the most fat and meat to slice away at when times get tough?
Cutting offices but not employees is probably good for the public. Consolidating two offices will get rid of one manager and maybe a supervisor as well. They may not be replaced but if they are it will be with claims reps and service reps which will help the public.
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