One of the remnants of the COVID pandemic is that Social Security offices are still closed. You have to set up an appointment to get in. But people are telling News10NBC that the phone system to do that doesn't work. ...
Farrah Ritter demonstrated the problem. From Pittsford Canal park, she called the Social Security 800 number to set up an appointment.
After a long message, 14 rings and some dead air, the call just ended. Ritter has a log of how often that's happened.
Here is just one day. ...
Farrah Ritter: "The longest was five minutes. The shortest was two minutes."
[Reporter]: "And that's before you get cut off?"
Ritter: "That's when I get cut off. I never get to anyone." ...I asked the SSA if it was aware of the phone issue and if it has a date when the offices will re-open for walk-in appointments.
So far - no answer to those questions. ...
What is described here is no fluke. This is the sort of "service" that claimants normally receive. It's scandalous but there's no great outcry over it. I don't understand why. Why do we put up with this?
45 comments:
That does suck but I thought the 800# had the option to get a call back? Maybe they removed it?
We put up with it so they can be "safe" and wfh. At least we know where all the coal is going this season. I know where to go for bbq.
But but but...Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!
In SSA land all the old tired excuses will be trotted out for exercise on this one!
Please do not lump Telephone service @ the 800# with the Field Offices .The Teleservice Center ( manned primarily by Customer SERVICE Representatives -CSR ) as opposed to the Field Office where Claims Specialists (CS) and Claims Technical Experts CTE) with totally different skillsets answer the telephone. The answer rates and busy rates are closely monitored. Depending on FO demographics many calls are just an inability to read and comprehend the most basic of letters.
Ahhh blame the Claimant, always a good excuse.
It would be nice to sometimes read something positive about SSA employees and the work that we accomplish on this blog. All I see is here lately is negativity and complaints about SSA workers.
Believe it or not, SSA work is being done from home by employees, and is being done well and timely. And that includes answering the telephone.
I attribute most of these complaints to jealousy about SSA employees being able to telework, rather than to any real problems within the agency. SSA jobs can for the most part be done well from home. Others may be jealous that their job cannot be done remotely.
Offices do need to reopen which may help somewhat with this. A nearby office that once had 300 visitors per day and 200 calls now has 50 visitors by appointment (for dropping off documents, replacement and new social security cards) now has 800-1000 calls per day. Offices now have to balance answering the large number of phone calls with doing the paperwork, etc that needs to be done to address the phone callers. This isn't to excuse poor service but there just aren't enough bodies to do it all and haven't been since early pandemic. Reopening will help some but if there are limits on in office visitors, there still will be a large number of callers with even less employees (they will be serving the in office people).
One work issue down the road after reopening is seeing the documents (citizenship, permanent residence cards, marriage certificates, divorce decrees and more) that were not required to be seen the past 20+ months due to Covid and office closures.
Most employees like working from home but realize that they need to return to give better service. The ones that post here worrying about new variants, unvaccinated visitors, etc are a small minority. Unfortunately, they paint a picture that all SSA employees want to avoid in office work for even the slightest reason.
Just open the offices and let people get sick and or die! Who cares, it will only be about 1 or 2% of visitors or employees. That’s totally acceptable!!! You ridiculous public servants took an oath to risk death or disability in service to the taxpayers. So just suck it up and get back to those offices!!!
I am still trying to reach the Gainesville, FL FIELD OFFICE. It was busy each time I tried yesterday, except once. On that call I went through the prompts, waited on hold, and got dead air after about ten minutes. Disconnected. Just tried it again and it is busy again. See for yourself, 877-219-8323. My boss pays me to make these calls. It's my job. I feel for the USA public who is on their own and depends on reaching SSA by telephone for help or information.
OPM and SSA Comish have both said it's a hard date on reopening January 3rd. They're currently in negotiating with the Union to see exactly how it's going to be rolled out but as of 01/03/22 the local offices will be open to the public. I'm just wondering when management will actually commit and tell us so we can tell the claimants.
Called FO rang, stopped, beeped and started over.
Still holding 11:20:49 AM
and still 11:32:16 AM, and still 11:38:27 AM, 25 + minutes as I read this
10:21 am OPM has no say over the reopening of SSA offices. The date is not set in stone. The Union hasnt even completed bargaining yet.
The biggest issue with phones isnt being closed to in office services.
The issue is a lack of man power
I just spent fifteen minutes on the phone with the Glassboro New jersey Field Office. Then I was told to call back.
The same thing happened yesterday.
The same thing happened the day before that.
In fact, I have not been able to reach that office at all for the past month.
This is the reality. Nice to hear it is being monitored. But like in the Seinfeld episode regarding reservations, taking a reservation is not the point, being able to access the service is what matters and more than half of the time, there is just no access at all.
Thankfully, for some offices I deal with, I have the managers line. Then, I get through. Without that, nada.
@10:21 - January 3rd was the proposed return to work date. SSA leadership has said that re-opening will only happen 30 days after the Union agrees to the return to work plan. Since that will not happen by December 4th, the January 3rd date is irrelevant. The Union will drag out negotiations for months to prevent a return to the office.
Office reopening cannot occur until 30 days after negotiations with the union has concluded. Therefore, unless an agreement is reached by tomorrow, the field offices will not reopen on 1/3, which was merely an aspirational target set by the ACOSS.
I bet omicron, which emerged after the reopening plan was announced, pushes the reopening back at least a few months. You cannot afford to have entire offices quarantine after an employee tests positive.
You think things are bad now when the public knows the offices are closed? Imagine what it will be like when no one will know, day to day, whether the office will be opened or closed due to a positive case.
All the chatter has been about re-opening the local SSA offices. But what about the OHOs? I still have not seen any definitive news on when they will open back for hearings.
There are phone issues on both sides of the equation - the 800N technology issues with the conversion to a new phone system, and the FO phones resulting from an overwhelming influx of callers -- some spillover from the 800N and more from frustrated claimants who are looking for service, or documents, or an SSN card, or to get an appointment to file a claim, or request an appeal or waiver, etc. Resolving the telephone issues is foundational to resolving service issues across the board. Without a functioning call center, customers and employees stand little chance of digging out.
SSA needs employees!!! The phones will get answered even less when the employees come back. The agency is suffering a massive retirement wave in the field offices
Attorneys representing claimants cannot professionally represent our clients because we cannot get through to SSA. We cannot get through to the Field Offices, we cannot get through to the hearing offices and we cannot get through to important places like the Regional Chief ALJ's offices.
Even if we do get through and leave a message the person who we leave a message for does not return the call. There is no professional courtesy left in this business.
I have 22 cases remanded by the Appeals Courts. Those cases are tied into the recent Supreme Court case of Carr v Saul. The cases are making it back to OHO. Two of the first three cases were scheduled by the OHO staff with the same ALJ even though there were three Remand Orders (10th Circuit, District Court and Appeals Council) that the cases should be assigned to a different ALJ consistent with Carr v. Saul. I have sent written objections but cannot get anyone to answer my telephone calls.
Today one of the cases was scheduled for a hearing but I was not notified of the hearing. I have represented that client since 2015. The only reason I found out about that was because the ALJ I had this morning on a different case mentioned that I had another case with him in the afternoon. There is a disconnect with Court Remands and OHO. It appears that the staff members are not actually reading the Remands or checking the files. The ALJ continued the hearing that I was not notified about.
Some attorneys representing claimants create unnecessary workloads, fail to follow policy and sends so many duplicate and irrelevant documents it's insane. The lack of care some of these reps have for the claimants is unreal. And many of the hearing office employees will remain full-time teleworkers indefinitely, so there's that. The Operation Field Offices are overwhelmed with everyone's demands. The problem is staff shortages, which will be a larger issue once the offices open.
Unfortunately, the public has the lack of insight into how stressed and thinly stretched the FOs are right now.
Everybody is too wrapped up into their own self-interests without a clue of the real issues in the agency.
Basic fact is we need employees. Even if they hired them tomorrow, it would take at least a few years to get them fully functioning. Planning/budget is the problem at SSA.
But the number of employees is really close to the number of employees before office closing. Interesting.
You have to read between the lines buddy. The number of employees will be pretty close but the actual number than can actually process any meaningful work is the issue.
For instance, during the pandemic, my office lost 10 employees due to retirement or just outright quitting. That left 2 people outside of management to process the work. We have since hired 4 people and also have some other help so on paper the office went from 12 employees to 11 but we still only have 4 total that can actually do work!!! The rest are trainees or management and don’t help with daily productivity.
So now do you see the issue? It isn’t working from home that’s causing the overwhelming problems, it’s not having bodies to do the work. By the way, side note, probably a third of the employees we do have suck at their jobs but thanks to the union, they get to keep getting paid.
This is why I contend working for the SSA is the worst experience of my life and that has zero to do with the claimants or the work itself.
The commonsense and fair approach at this point is this:
Wait a few weeks to see how bad the Omicron COVID variant will be, and then reassess whether SSA offices should reopen.
Omicron is spreading quickly and is now in several states. For the safety of SSA employees and the general public it's best for SSA not to rush into something which could be a health and public relations disaster.
@10:08 the mismatch between the workload and the number of employees existed pre-pandemic. This is not a new issue. It was bad then, it is still bad now.
Someone commented that we only complain about SSA on this website so I am going to say that so far (knock on wood) I have had no problems getting through to the oho offices where my cases are located (I deal with about 7 on a regular basis) and have no problem with the OHO staying home and having virtual hearings.
Field offices on the other hand were hard to reach by phone before the pandemic and impossible to reach now. The files have come to a screeching halt and getting anything done takes multiple phone calls and faxes. Yes, there needs to be more employees in SSA. But they need to be trained and that needs to happen in an office not by phone.
FYI: 30 day notices were not issued, so the reopening will take place later than 1/3.
7:24 Yes thank goodness no reopening on 1/3/22. I am an SSA employee and I was so relieved when COB came on Friday afternoon while I was working at home, , with no 30 day call back notice.
In life, timing is everything. I'm hoping that SSA management and AFGE now realize any winter 2022 callback is not the way to go. COVID cases growing and COVID deaths up 42% last week. I feel so much safer working at home.. Best to keep the status quo until things get better.
anon@6:38pm,
All SSA does to train new hires now is force them to watch endless video on demand training sessions, which can be done anywhere. They don't even give them proper training manuals any more.
In the end, you end up with barely trained drones incapable of doing anything more complex than wiping their own rears without maximum handholding (that isn't available).
But, management considers them fully trained. And in management la-la land, those delusions are all that matters...
Your call is very important to us. Goodbye.
I call 100% BS on " COVID deaths up 42%" please post your source.
Looks like they transposed the numbers. The death rate is only up 24% week over week per the weekly trends report located at:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/weekly-trends/#weekly_table
OPEN THE OFFICES!!!
We only had video training back in 2000. Came out and was given half an alpha, after 6 month 3/4 of an alpha and then by a year a full workload. I didnt die either.
Yes, but you also had a dedicated mentor and watched the video training in a classroom setting. This was true for me when I was hired a few years after you.
Trainees now are forced to watch the VODs alone at their desks with little or no support. Therefore, it is not comparable to our training experiences.
They should have never done away with in person training. When we got out of training we were expected to do the job fully, although there were still DRTs at that point to help w/ inputs, etc.
I have done video training since and it's just not nearly as effective.
“Thank you for calling Social Security...if we hang up that means call us later”...
I am trying to figure out how OT impacts answering the phone during business hours.
@1029 Answering phones takes time away from processing retirement, disability, Medicare, SSI, etc claims. Post entitlement actions like removing workers compensation or public disability benefits offset and many others (1696s)take a bit of time. One can change addresses, phone numbers and direct deposit while answering the phones but not all actions are so simple.
I don't answer the phone at SSA, I let the answering machine pick up and call back later when I have time.
It is difficult enough to keep up with high priority cases my manager has asked me to move during the day. I get a list in the morning..
If I took time to answer the calls as they came in, I'd fall behind on the cases which must be processed.
Also answering the phone calls would break my train of thought and I'd be more likely to make mistakes on the complex cases I am working, which require calculations and full concentration.
Bringing back overtime to 2019 levels would help a lot. The cutbacks of overtime had a negative impact on processing, including phone calls
Having an actual budget would help with funding for OT but that seems too difficult a task for our elected officials.
What I am seeing is if you want me to answer the phone you have to pay me 1.5 times my pay rate, other than that I am not going to do it.
No, what you are seeing is:
"I only have 37.5 hours per week to work and I need to prioritize getting the American people paid their benefits by taking processing actions. Due to an ever shrinking workforce, I do not have time to devote to phone calls, which can sometimes be very lengthy."
Here is a tip: contact your public affairs specialist if you have been unsuccessful getting through to your local office or the 800 line. The agency employs roughly 100 of these communication specialists. Utilize them!
Here is a tip. Do the job you are paid for without excuse. You want to wfh you have to answer the damn phone.
Cant get the public affairs person to pick up the phone, they have had their OT cut too.
9;42 and is correct. SSA employees have 37.5 hours a week to prioritize getting claims taken in and processed as well as answer the phone. On top of managements priorities and constant disruptions.
In 2019 the OT was reduced when Andrew Saul became commissioner, which resulted in less time to complete work. The OT is far and few these days. I can work credit time to make up work at the same time after I hit a certain # of credit hours, I have to take off time.
The OT needs to be reinstated in full as well as a massive hiring effort. I hope the new commissioner takes action on these needs.
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