From CNBC (emphasis added):
When Charlene Latsha calls the Social Security Administration, she’s placed on hold for so long that she hangs up.
Latsha, 70, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, has been trying to reach the government agency about her husband’s application for retirement benefits. Though he has been disabled and unable to work for the past two years, he is unable to claim disability benefits. But as he turns 65, the couple decided now would be a good time for him to claim his monthly retirement checks.
When Latsha logs on to her husband’s online account, a message reading “account has been suspended” comes up. When she calls Social Security’s 800 number, she typically waits on hold for about 45 minutes to an hour before she gives up.
“You call, and you’re on hold forever,” Latsha said. “For three weeks now, I’ve been trying to get in touch with them.” ...
While the average wait time for Social Security’s 800 number was around 13.5 minutes in 2021, some months have had longer delays. In January, for example, the average wait was around 40 minutes. ...
Dorothy Pritchette, 48, a schoolteacher from Newport News, Virginia, has been unable to work since she had a stroke in August. She applied for disability benefits shortly thereafter. While the Social Security Administration website shows that the benefits have been approved, [she] has yet to receive a payment. ...
I agree with everything stated in the article. The only way I can reach the local Field Office is through an Administrative # I was given about five years ago.
ReplyDeleteI only use that number when I have reached total frustration in reaching SSA. Every time I call that number the person answering asks me how I got it. Apparently, it is a number for supervisors. Every office has a number like this. I am afraid that they will change it because I have it.
Whenever I call that number someone in a supervisory position answers, takes care of my business.
I also use a number of back channels to reach Social Security. I sometimes call the Regional Public Relations staff for assistance. They say we are Public Relations. My answer is that my client and I are the Public and we want to have a relationship with SSA. It usually takes the P.R. office a day or two to contact the proper SSA people and they call me. Lately, Public Relations has not been answering.
This practice has become frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI've had claimants and attorneys fill up my VM with rude and aggressive messages. Requesting that I process their case in a manner not in accordance with POMS procedure. Demanding that their case be processed next.
To be honest, I stopped listening to my VM months ago. It's probably filled by now. As I work in a PSC they should not be calling me in the first place, unless it is to return my call. It's appropriate to call FO and TSC not PC technicians.
This is the kind of attitude that infuriates not just the public, but also FO employees. The fact that FO employees cannot have direct communications by phone and email with their counterparts in the PC is ridiculous. SSA leadership needs to crack down on this culture of siloing.
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ReplyDeleteThe FO directs us to the PC. To the extent an atty might leave a rude or aggressive message, we don't, but I imagine others might when they've heard nothing on fees that were awarded 9 months prior.
Even a few years ago before the pandemic, it took over an hour to talk to someone. I have come to expect this over the years and simply make the call, put it on speaker phone plugged into the charger, while I do other things on the computer.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it's not turning into something like 2 or 3 hour waits at least, since the pandemic.
The article didn't mention that, more than once, SSA has disconnected the calls after 30 minutes or so . . . Apparently that's one way to keep the time down. Alternatively, SSA may roll the call over to another office, who answers the call then says they can't help because a staffer at the first office is handling the matter. That's a waste of time but, again, the stats look better for SSA.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not the offices and employees are doing the best they can under circumstances dictated by the budget, politics, demand overwhelming resources...and many more reasons. Keeping up with the GI line demand in an FO was hard before the corona. Do you think it would be easier now?
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ReplyDelete5:57 I am a PC claims specialist and I often get Outlook EMails from the FO regarding cases and situations they want resolved. I always respond. So FO employees can contact the PC.
(I wish that we could Email attorneys too back and forth about cases, but we could get in trouble for disclosing claimants PII identifying info. SSA checks our outgoing Email for that)
I have not been able to reach the MidATlantic PSC for years. I used to be able to call the Congressional Line or the Management Line but for the past two years, no one answers that line as well. What is even worse is that I am told by District Office employees that they cannot communicate with the Payment Center either.
ReplyDeleteI have recently been contacting the Regional Communications Office to ask them to get me a call back and lately than is not working any more.
The Baltimore PC has a rep call number that generally gets answered and sometimes resolves problems. The Regional Centers have no such number.
Simply, Social Security communications have failed apart. An agency that used to work, no longer works at all and COVID is just the excuse, not the cause. The real cause is inept management and a lack of anyone willing to take responsibility for failure.
The SSA is proving that Conservative were right all along in saying that Government can't work. What a shame.
Just a side note, the Conservatives defund the government agencies to the point where they are overwhelmingly understaffed and the they say “see! We need to privatize cuz government is failing”
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ReplyDeleteThe SSA PC employees are already swamped with cases, many of which are difficult and time consuming.
PC module technicians therefore must be protected from having to spend all day answering phone calls.
I have been told this at meetings. Payment Center's priority is not phone calls, but working cases: to input awards and take post entitlement actions.
Calls are mainly to be handled by FO, TSC, and RCC.
Which is total and complete nonsense. FO employees are the ones that take the claims that, on occasion, the PC needs to process. FO employees have no more free time than PC employees to respond to phone calls.
DeleteSmh, this is the BS siloing phenomenon that is killing morale in the FOs.
The most difficult and time consuming cases are worked in the payment centers. Court cases, exceptions, favorable ALJ allowances, attorney fee issues, non medical reconsiderations. Not much time is available for phone calls.
ReplyDeleteWhile FO technicians have time allotted by their managers for interviewing and dealing with the public, PC technicians have no such allotment.
PC technicians get a list of cases to work, or else are supposed to work the cases in assigned queue. The manager does not want to hear that time was spent on the phone with an attorney, or a claimant, or on a case that was not on the list.
3:30 And that is the problem. PC technicians can't be bothered to answer phones even when answering the phone could clear up any problem they have with processing the case.
ReplyDeleteManagement doesn't answer the phones even if to just tell the rep what the status of the case is. When we cannot even determine status, we only get more frustrated.
When DO staff, including DO management, can't get anyone on the phone at the PSC to either determine status or resolve a problem, then they can't advise as to status either and they get to listen to claimant's and reps screaming at them on the phone on a regular basis.
The system has broken down completely and 3"30, your excuses are the problem and not the solution.
anybody try calling a field office today? Several offices in Michigan, the phone just rings a busy signal since at least 11am until now, 2:27pm. I've called Wyandotte, Detroit Northwest, Dearborn,...Not even the opening message "thank you for calling Social Security." I'm sure this is ok for the general public who have needed to speak to someone since last week, considering the office was closed yesterday for President's Day.
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ReplyDelete9:36 You need to look up the definitions of "excuse" and "reason".
You seem to be confusing the two definitions.
Contact congress person to get it done
ReplyDeleteI haVE HAD same experience and IM a FED same with OPM you never get through and NEVER get the same answer. just ask 3 different people. This has been going on for years. Has nothing to do with working at home, in fact I've had better luck with folks teleworking
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