Tom Margenau remembers the old days when Social Security had field representatives who, like actually, went outside their offices, to the field, to help people file claims and otherwise deal with the agency.
The lousy service we have come to expect from Social Security isn’t inevitable. It’s based upon decisions made over many years by people who are indifferent to the level of service the agency provides, if not hostile to good service. We deserve better.
I remember them too. Biggest waste of money. A small office (<25 people) had one and also a govt car as well. 90% of the work he did was as a CR with a bit of public speaking and occasional visit to someone's home to help them with an issue. Pre-covid, supervisors and CRs occasionally made house visits for some program issues such as MNUP, etc.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how phenomenal the service was. We can now process a retirement claim overnight and have the person getting money at their bank in 3-4 days. Way back in the 70s and 80s we had to order earnings records that came by mail in about 10-14 days and then had to do another input (reviewed by DRTs). The process was much slower and few people had direct deposit so that meant a few weeks after we did the final input. before they'd receive a check. Total time 3-4 days vs 4-5 weeks.
It would be nice to have the funding for staff to have field reps for contact stations, etc. If you really want that type of service, you may need to petition Congress for quite a large increase in the budget. It may fall under infrastructure.
Oh yes 744, we can go faster and faster but that's not public service when most of the claimants can't keep up due to a lack of technology or a basic inability to understand our programs. It is people like you who have destroyed this Agency. Every SSA employee should be required to do a rotation of outreach work so they understand for who we actually work.
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ReplyDeleteSome of the dedicated employees who work for SSA and work hard to provide good service are tired of the constant complaints. A little bit of gratitude would go a long way. I've worked for the agency since 1979 and claims are processed much faster today and with fewer errors than in the "good old days".
Attorney fee actions are a headache for the agency due to their complexity and time consuming nature. Some of the problems come from the representatives actions. For example: Many firms did not seem to understand that if they listed multiple attorneys on the SSA-1696 then the fee is divided, and if only one of the representatives is registered then the unregistered reps have to look to the claimant for their portion of the fee.
This created so many problems that the agency finally had to combine. the SSA-1695 and SSA-1696 to force attorneys to register when they subnit the SSA1696. I'm still having to deal with problem from the old case when the attorney failed to register.
Never had field reps when I was a CR. But occasionally someone would do a home visit or give a presentation. Either the manager or a CR was chosen. No big deal. Used my own car, no reimbursement for that. If during regular working hours, no extra pay. When I went in the evening to speak, got paid for the time there. I suppose it depends on the manager whether or not this happens.
ReplyDeleteBUT, funny story. My manager decided he would go on a home visit to take an app from a woman who was bedridden. When he arrived, the caregiver had a porn movie playing on the TV.
@ 952 Claimants don't need to keep up in order to get paid timely. Pre-Covid, offices were open and had 800K visitors per week. Some folks w/ technology preferred doing some basic tasks online rather than visit.
ReplyDeleteEvery SSA employee who works in a FO knows who they work for. Who do you think are calling or previously coming in?
When I was a CR in the 70s, I wanted to be a field rep. That was before I realized the pay was better elsewhere in the agency. But speed wasn't the issue. Sure, everything was paper then, claims took time at all stages and yes that has improved. But what was lost was the face of the agency, the human touch that made a difference. Our field reps had to be effective public speakers, familiar with the agency and the operations, the trust funds, figure out month of election manually. They helped CRs clear hard cases by getting evidence, getting signatures, kept nursing home operators in the loop but on their toes. They were often in newspaper articles, and not as a horrid "how messed up is SSA" piece.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of like grocery stores. It used to be so different than today. Lots of cashiers, stockboys, people who'd take your groceries to your car for you. It was slower but from a customer perspective, it worked. Sure, now there are fewer cashiers but lots of ways to do self-service from scan as you shop to self-checkouts but can anyone say the service is any better than it used to be?
SSA used to have a solid positive rep with the people. We "gave" them their money. We helped when they had tragedy. Ranked high.
Now we treat them like a commodity, pretend faster is always better and now we are in the paper as the people who screw up. We don't do month of election anymore, and we make coming to the office a dreaded experience.
It's funny how everyone is so quick to jettison humans in how we do business. I often wonder if we'd have a better rep with folks if they could still come into a nearby convenient office that didn't look like a bank or teh DMV, set up looking like no one trusts them to a person and get their issue taken care of. Might not be as fast, certainly costs more but it might be better.
Sorry we started looking at people as a luxury in this instead of a key player in how we do business. We used to be the face of government, and one people respected.
The fact that opinion is a thing of the past is on us, we did that to ourselves (meaning Congress and SSA leadership.)
@1105 and 109 this is @952. Just to be clear, I do work for the Agency and have for almost 30 years. So this is an inside view. Many claimants do not understand our programs and they lose benefits or incurr overpayments. I know this for a fact because these people end up on my system and it is heartbreaking how they have been treated.I am embarrassed for us.It used to be that a CR would tell claimants about everything they were entitled to and the best way to get them, preserve them. Now that every action is measured and quantified, there is no such public service just public processing. It used to be that every employee in every office was expected to answer the phones and actually interact with the claimants. Now we tell you that your call is important to us, but it is really not. I don't understand what the problem is with processing attorney fees, I did it for many years and still do on occasion. Part of the problem is that this Agency is clearly anti attorney. Which is just stupid. BTW, I agree with everything that @721 said.
ReplyDeleteWhile there aren't any field reps, the agency does employ about 100 public affairs specialists that do have a physical presence in the community in regards to making presentations, staffing information tables at large outreach events, etc.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend contacting your PAS to be added to their email list.
Basically it comes down to difficulty in navigating all the SSA rules. I have been in the disability game since the mid 2000s. And I am still learning the rules on that side e.g. the new proposed back listings. So I can empathize with older individuals having to navigate the retirement side of the SSA.
ReplyDeleteThe SSA seemingly has looked to the Internet as its crutch. They seemingly wanted all business done with the Internet. That is probably fine with younger individuals. The problem is the majority of the people using the SSA are older individuals. And the Internet can be scary for those. They want the personal attention.
Always said the U.S. Government can seemingly put humans on the moon. But they cannot provide better service with the SSA? The answer is they could if provide more money and help from Congress.
I was a CR, I am not any longer. Went to work for a disability group for a while. I understand a little of both worlds and neither world has a clear vision of what the other does. I will say that most reps would not last a week in the FO/DO as a CR.
ReplyDeleteI moved out of the DIB for profit business and do social work now. I make less but feel much better than the other two positions.
I'm not looking to dump on the PAS community, but last I experienced them, it was all scripted and PR stuff. No "field" work, just PR. I've had the privilege of attending SSI seminars given by CRs that were solid and I've talked with PAS people at events and got told to call the 800 number. Being a CR equivalent is just not their job, it's curated social media, prepared topic talks and similar. It's so not the kind of thing that really represents the face of the agency like a FR did back in the dark ages.
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