Here's a note recorded by a legal assistant in my firm's database: "TC [Telephone Call] Mid Atlantic PSC [Program Service Center] (816) 936-3910 and he said they have it [a fee petition] but they're taking about a year to process fee petitions and we are about half way."
How can law firms be expected to represent Social Security claimants in this sort of environment? And we're paying a user fee for this sort of service!
It's not just attorney fees that are a problem. All sorts of things are a problem for the payment centers. It's obvious that they "fast track" the simplest work and almost nothing else is getting done. However, even the "fast tracked" work is slow.
I'm not blaming the people. They're just overwhelmed.
From an insiders perspective, I don’t find that telework is better than in office work. For the hardworking and conscientious, they are able to get more work done, without a doubt. For the people who are prone to waste time, telework makes that far worse. For the average person, I see some that make more mistakes and are less attentive to their pending, I think this is the cost of a lack of face to face interaction with people at the office. I agree that episodic telework is useful for the productive, but full time telework for everyone is not. If that were the case, then all backlogs would be getting worked down. That is not happening. The OT games the agency leadership has been playing didn’t help (no OT in Feb. due to a ‘budget shortfall,’ to OT in the summer), but I don’t see any signs that productivity is better now than in 2019. I think the data will bear that out, should it be released.
ReplyDeleteGood thing they are so much more productive at home, imagine how bad it would be if they were forced to actually do work in an office.
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ReplyDeleteI work in PC7. We fell well behind when all of our Claims Specialist overtime was abruptly terminated in early 2021.
I disagree that the simplest work is fast tracked. We do have screening days once a week when we screen through incoming work to work the quick actions so it will not be backlogged. This is a time tested way to manage our workloads.
Generally the only work that is fast tracked are priority cases such as unprocessed ALJ disability allowances, and dire need cases.
An attorney fee petition wouldn't be considered priority although I agree a year is too long to wait. Saul should never have terminated PC overtime he helped to create these backlogs.
This can't be right. I thought with telework everyone was so much more productive that its all unicorns and rainbows now.
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with telework. This has everything to do with a lack of personnel and OT.
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I'm sure cutting OT created massive problems. I would like to see how staffing levels have changed over the last 1-2 years as well.
ReplyDeleteBut, if telework is so successful in increasing productivity, why do you need overtime? We keep hearing how much productivity has increased due to telework but where is the evidence?
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ReplyDeleteThe backlogs would be worse without telework. The stats show payment employees are more productive at home. Also employees use less leave while they can work remotely.
The payment center backlogs are caused by draconian cuts in PC overtime under Andrew Saul's regime, and inadequate staffing.
While I am sure inadequate staffing and overtime cuts have significantly impacted service, anecdotally telework is also clearly a factor. You will not convince reps otherwise, especially those that personally call the payment centers themselves. For example, even when our office gets through via telephone, many of the calls are dropped or dead-air.This rarely occurred before Covid. There was one occassion when I could clearly hear road-noise from driving when the line was picked up, but no one spoke. And when everyone was in the office, I could be transferred directly to a claims authorizer that could take action on the case immediately--this is no longer an option. I am also being told now that we cannot speak about overpayment issues. This is huge problem for our Workers Compensation clients.
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ReplyDeleteI work RCC cases and it's a problem when an attorney calls RCC regarding adjusting an overpayment due to workers' compensation documents which are sitting in the module's backlog.
WC cases are often complex, time consuming, and sometimes require development for additional documents. Therefore WC cases are not worked in RCC nor should they be.
It would not be equitable to put these cases to the front of the line ahead of all other cases, just because the attorney calls about it.
PC4 hasn't answered their phone in months. If you can get it to ring, you enter the number for the relevant SSN group and an automated message says "Thank you for calling. Goodbye."
ReplyDeleteSo i am impressed that your assistant was able to get anyone at all to answer the phone at MidAtlantic PSC. They are none far and wide in the representative community that has to deal with them, as well as even people within the SSA that have to try to get information out of them, as being completely unresponsive to phone calls, emails, and even "manager to manager" requests from within the SSA.
ReplyDeleteI pity anyone, claimant, representative, or SS staff that has to deal with this train wreck of an office.
Telework isn't some magic bullet in either direction. I think the sum of all telework productivity research is a collective shrug in terms of whether it increases or decreases productivity on the whole.
ReplyDeleteBut what is certain is that SSA lacks employees. Look, you can't tell me with a management style as strict as Operations' that those folks couldn't process their work if they were adequately staffed. What about the historical fact that PCs in particular have always had/used massive amounts of OT for their normal work to keep afloat and that when the OT was cut recently there was an appreciable spike in delays not just give it away? I'm no brain genius, but it seems pretty obvious that SSA simply doesn't have enough employees in its PCs to timely and with quality perform the workloads based on these known pieces of data.
Wow what a wait for fee petitions. Just ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely tell you it is the lack of staff who do the fee petitions. They are at about 1/4 the staff they had in that position.
ReplyDeleteBTW 816 area code is not Mid Atlantic's area code.
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