... Limiting visitors has also resulted in an influx of incoming mail and phone calls. To illustrate the magnitude of this increase, before the pandemic, field offices scanned and uploaded about 150,000 paper documents weekly for processing. Offices are currently scanning and uploading approximately one and a half million paper documents weekly. In FY 2020, the unit time for the 47 million field office actions increased by 20 percent in part due to scanning, copying, indexing, and returning mailed documents, which significantly reduced our productivity. ...
Similarly, field offices are now handling three times as many phone calls as they did pre-pandemic. We are on track to answer over 60 million calls in our field offices in FY 2021—up from 20 million calls handled in FY 2019. ...
Apr 29, 2021
From The Senate Finance Committee Hearing
I've watched today's hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. There's certainly a lot of concern about people having to mail their drivers licenses or passports to Social Security. The response from Social Security's witness, Grace Kim, on this issue was basically "We're looking into it" but there was no commitment to do anything different, only to get back to the Committee within two weeks. The problem is that this is just the issue that the Senators are hearing the most about from their constituents but there's a much bigger problem with people who need in-person help filing claims, particularly SSI claims. There's no option for them to get the help they need.
Kim was asked about when field offices might reopen. Her responses didn't include any sort of timeline. She said Social Security would have to wait on guidance from the White House.
Kim was asked about negotiations with the employee unions. She said that there were negotiations over the agency's workplace safety plan but not about anything else. I was surprised that there were not more questions on this. The unions want to redo contracts that were imposed upon them during the Trump Administration. This would certainly happen if President Biden could appoint a new Social Security Commissioner.
Here's a couple of tidbits from the written Kim's written statement:
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The field offices may need to partially reopen first in order to serve the SSI claimants. There isn't a pressing need for PSC or TSC to reopen. Having employees come back to the office and wear masks all day would not help PSC productivity.
OPM would need to issue guidance first before any reopenings. Will employees age 65+ be exempt and allowed to continue to telework every day, as they are at the highest risk if they caught COVID19? What about other high risk employees? There is some evidence that even people who are fully vaccinated can become infected. Perhaps the low risk employees (young and healthy) could be brought back. Revised OPM guidance for all federal agencies is needed..
SSI claimants can file over the phone. Could do it before the pandemic and still can. Very few don't have access to a phone, either their own or to borrow someone's phone.
Re replacement SSNs--the procedure now is to request one online through mySSA if there is no change in name and citizenship/lawful presence is not an issue. So many that do mail documents into the office didn't need to do so. Some do and with the great increase in mail the return times are not good.
Has there been any discussion about when or if SSA will reopen OHO for live hearings. Will claimants or their attorneys have the option to proceed with telephone or video hearings? My experience with telephone hearings has generally been good and they have made my practice much more efficient.
Just more numbers/stats being thrown out. The SSA playbook. It's like a rudderless ship. No accountability. Nothing ever changes for the good at SSA. And, the public service suffers because of it.
I also cannot understand why there were no additional questions concerning Labor Relations and Union Negotiations. I thought Senators had been well informed about the problem at SSA with top Agency Officials refusing to abide by Biden’s EO’s In this area, which undo those from the Trump era. What’s the deal here? Why has the Biden Administration tolerated Saul, and SSA’s blatant refusal to conduct itself in accordance with Biden’s EO’s? I was not aware blatant refusal of Biden’s EO’s was even an option. Are other Agencies aware they apparently can refuse to follow Biden’s EO’s with no accountability?
The FEVS Survey results showed SSA us rated as one of the worst Federal Agencies to work with only a 68% employee engagement approval rating. There appears to either be a tremendous lack of communication between SSA’s Officials concerning the EO’s and their employee Unions, or outright insubordination by Saul and Agency Officials to follow them? This certainly would be sufficient cause to push Saul, et.al., out the door! The utter silence from the White House on this is mind boggling. So, what’s going on?
"Offices are currently scanning and uploading approximately one and a half million paper documents weekly."
Why, in 2021, is SSA scanning documents? SSA should request these via email, with the option for people to mail if they don't have the ability to send electronically.
The lack of modern technology at SSA is honestly a crisis. They still have hundreds of fax machines at HQ that just sit around and print spam.
@9:22 AM
Because despite it being 2021, many medical providers (probably a majority) are too old to comply with, or simply don't care to comply with, the HIPAA and HITECH rules. Also because many claimants and representatives (again, probably most) continue to send records via fax or deliver them through the mail or in-person on the date of their hearing, though this last one obviously hasn't been an issue in the past 13 months or so.
12:50PM
I think I'd feel reasonably safe returning to my office, mostly because I trust my colleagues' judgment and because it's not open to the public, though this would also be a needless risk for that very same reason.
But would I feel safe returning to an office open to the general public? Not a chance. In many states, you can't throw a rock without hitting an unvaccinated person acting as if this whole "COVID thing" is already over, and complaining that there just aren't enough "incentives" for them to do the right thing and roll up their sleeve. Because apparently reducing your risk of hospitalization, severe long-term illness and death from a relatively high level to near zero just isn't a snazzy enough perk? That nonsense speaks volumes about the lay public's judgment and intelligence, and the message it sends is downright frightening.
@12:50 I wouldn't necessarily trust the judgment of colleagues vis a vis the COVID19 pandemic and getting vaccinations. That plus the constant public interaction speaks to not opening the offices any time soon, at least not until there is herd immunity. Doing otherwise would be flat out stupid.
@922 SSA is still supposed to see actual documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce, permanent resident cards, citizenship, etc. SSA has to certify that they saw the original document, not a copy that was faxed or emailed to them.
As for the rest of the things scanned, everything from letters, forms, etc are mailed in to offices every day.
10:13 says many, maybe most medical providers provide paper medical records and that reps still submit, or submitted, paper medical records to the ALJ's on the day of the hearing.
Wrong on both counts. There are still some old fashioned colors that do not use electronic record keeping but at this point they are few and far between. Records are submitted by copy services like CIOX and MRO (Cost is another issue) but they are submitted electronically, not on paper. And reps have been submitting records in the vast majority of case electronically for years. Even when the offices were open, a rep that showed up with paper records was told to take them back and submit them electronically through the fax machine in the lobby.
I complain about a lot of things with the SSA, but ERE for submission of records is now almost universal and really has been for years, pre covid as well as now.
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