From Let's Close More Social Security Field Offices by Elizabeth Bauer published by Forbes:
Social Security advocates have been sounding the alarm: Republicans, stymied in their efforts to cut benefits in the overall Social Security program, have set their sights on the program's administrative budget, leaving frail elderly ladies travelling endlessly and waiting for hours on end for their turn in the line at the Social Security field office. ...
[V]irtually all tasks associated with Social Security Old Age benefits can be done online. You can view your benefit statement, apply for Social Security retirement or disability benefits and Medicare, update your address or direct deposit information, and more. Many of the Social Security applicants or recipients ... do not actually need to come to the office at all, but we're told that we can't expect the elderly to use computers so they need to have the in-person option preserved for them. However, most retirees have family members who are able to help and of those who don't, all of the same sort of institutions (public libraries, townships, even the local VFW) that came to the aid of Obamacare "exchange" users or provide other services to the elderly, should certainly be able to help these individuals, which in turn would have the further benefit of providing a means to further connect up older Americans to the internet, whether it's e-mail or online bill-pay or other benefits. ...
After all, certain of these tasks [applying for survivor or SSI benefits] must be done in-person at field offices (or by mail with the attendant risk of lost documents) solely due to the need to verify the authenticity of certain documents. Perhaps this is more complex than I imagine, but it hardly seems like something that requires a Social Security specialist's skills to do; surely it would be a win-win situation for individuals to be able to have a local governmental unit verify the authenticity of the document prior to forwarding photocopies or document scans onward. ...
SSI benefits are so complex to administer that their cost is 9% of the overall benefits paid out (compared to 0.3% for old age/survivors and 1.8% for disability), but SSI recipients, who are overwhelmingly under-65s who qualify by reason of disability, generally qualify for other state or federal benefits as well, and other agencies are already involved in providing them services, which means that closer coordination, with a focus on return to (or entry into) the workforce, could only benefit them. ...If I looked at her other writings I might find that Ms. Bauer has also said "Let them eat cake!"
3 comments:
The online services at SSA have NOT been as good as what the computer geeks say! When I began applying for retirement benefits, I tried for a few months to do so online, but the system never allowed me to do so. [By the way, I'm not old and clueless about computers; I've used computers extensively in two separate occupations since 1978.]
Finally, I had to drive to the next town (not much of a hassle), wait 45 minutes to see someone. The young lady was able to get my application for benefits completed in 10 minutes. I'd have rather done it by computer, but SSA's online services have never delivered what was promised.
I retired from representing disability claimants. I was one of the first attorneys at my ODAR to get access to Electronic Express. The part of the online services that work are great, but my staff and I still had some problems. FIX IT FIRST BEFORE FORCING THE PUBLIC TO USE IT!
Until they made two-factor authentication mandatory, online fraud was probably 90 percent of our fraud visits to the FO. Now it's about half. If you want an online account, you should have to start it in person with ID. Period. Eliminate social engineering as a vector.
The funny part is that this lady shares the same naive faith in SSA's online offerings as SSA leadership, and she's using it as a justification to basically kill the agency. Anybody that's ever had to train a contractor they know is basically going to be their replacement would recognize the irony.
Sorry Ms. Bauer, but the T2 program complexity stymies way too many human claims reps as it is and the automated systems come nowhere near where they need to be to set up things like month of election and deciding what benefit to file for first if dual entitled etc. There are nuances in the law that modern systems don't handle. Even the terminology and jargon is confusing. How much time of a CR is spent interpreting the application question into words or examples that the customer understands so that the answer given is the right one, not the first one they think it means. And the rules for SSI don't make it easier to coordinate with other agencies who have different rules on what income is, what a proof is etc. She sounds like someone who says to a programmer that "this should be easy" because they cannot understand how complex a system is. And yes, killing the system to save it is a favored approach.
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