From WHEC:
For the first time in two years, people could just walk into the Social Security office downtown to try to get someone to help them.
For five months, we've documented all kinds of problems and delays with the agency's phone system and operators, but Thursday the doors opened and we found someone who really needed the access.
I stood on Main Street asking people who walked in without an appointment—how did it go? Some said it was fine. Others were still frustrated. And then I saw a little 7-year-old girl walk out with her mom and considering where they came from, the offices opened at the right time.
Jenna is 7 years old. She and her mother Yurina and escaped from Ukraine.
"I'm helping my friends," Viktor Kachaluba said. "They come from Ukraine, like refugee."
This mother and daughter recently came into the United States through Mexico. They came to the Social Security office when it opened today in the hopes of getting a number. ...
Within two hours of opening, about 50 people came to the office and I watched more arrive every minute.
People waited in the lobby to get escorted to the second floor.
"I just needed my social security card," Deshawn Terry said. "And the phone lines were tied up so I just decided to come down."
"Yes, I've called numerous times," Ann Randall said. "I've been on hold, ringing for hours." ...
If you work in a field office, how is reopening going so far?
8 comments:
The office I work in was much slower than anticipated, even slower than prior to closing for the pandemic. We expect traffic to pick up significantly next week. It seems that the public still isn't aware that offices are reopened.
Another quiet day. I am very glad the Union did not get their way on doing appointments only, as by the time you have set an appointment for a routine matter, you can have it solved - and it is way more convenient, for example, for the deaf people we serve. Still predicting open floodgates on Monday.
Yep, CRs working the front desk all day doing replacement cards and handing out benefit verification letters instead of taking claims or doing pending work. For the foreseeable future, I will be paid 80k to spend 24 of my 40 hrs/ wk doing just that. We don’t have enough staff to handle it otherwise. Approximately 30% of my visitors yesterday and today were sent away for not having proper ID for same replacement cards. And all these people will be back, and back, and… I gave out addresses to the DMV and Medicaid office..I know all of these things are positives the author of this blog though, who conflates SSA public employees with private or public social workers.
I also can confirm 6:40's statement. Basically close to half of all staff is upfront doing walk in traffic. Filing for benefits is STILL by appointment unless you meet very specific exceptions and also get management approval. Even then we are trying to call them back on a phone because we have to keep interviewing under 10 minutes in person. The phones are being answered by the remainder of the staff on a rotation while trying to also take scheduled claims and "squeezing in some RZ's" for SSI staff. SURE... we have have gotten some hires. But for example our office has 21 total staff. 2 are management and of the remaining 19 staff 9 are trainees. Those 9 trainees have a total of 2 mentors for all 9. One mentor in SSI and one in T2. Mentors must review every trainees input until they are proficient in a given workload while All are "helping" with public service. Most trainees are clueless how to really answer the multitude of questions you get upfront or on phones and are getting help from their mentors, other staff, or management. So how efficient is this really? About efficient as you think. So if you are wondering why SSA has a higher than normal attrition rate than it has had historically....that's your answer. If you are wondering why workloads are growing....that's your answer. If you are wondering why mid level managers are quitting in droves... that's your answer. Sooo much to do and still more to do. All with a smile. We at the FO are doing our best with little to no help or understanding from Grace Kim at Central Office. Yeah I said it. (Keep sending out those demanding emails not based in reality that have zero accountability or direction on how to make it work. You do you.)
Yeah please keep sending status checks though to the FO, especially about Title II attorney fees that the PC handles. Please keep telling people to come in for every little thing. Unfortunately it isn’t really ‘hurting’ us, as we have ways to deal with our stress, and are not going to get suspended or fired for our insane, growing backlogs-it will hurt your ‘clients.’ I don’t know how many times we can say that walk in traffic is mainly NOT claims related, and as long as we keep our doors open and see walk ins for SS5s and benefit letters, actual claim matters will suffer. You don’t seem to get it….these people ‘lose’ their social security card, and their kids, multiple times per year, times thousands of people in a metro area, and ‘need’ a new social security card every time they file taxes, file for a benefit, app,y for an apartment, enroll their kids in school….and need a benefit letter for themselves every single month. I work in a metro area. In my office we have 3 full time crs, one part time cr, one cr Trainee that started last week, a cr on paternity leave, and two csrs. One of the csrs is retiring in July. We have approx 12 appts/day, need two people on phones, need to have three people ‘screening,’ and someone doing RZs. In what alternate universe is this possible.
7:42, the PSC staff and Operations leadership are pretty clear that other than situations handled by the RCC, the way reps should be dealing with PC issues is by calling the FOs and having them do manager-to-manager calls. Nobody (except the PSCs) likes this, but if it's not possible to get through to or get a call back from a payment center there's not really another option. If the FO and PSC unions would get together on this issue and not just pass the buck it would be a lot better for everyone! I realize there's a lot of work, and that for a variety of reasons everyone would rather do 10 easy cases than one hard one. But the one hard one does eventually need to get done too, and if it's done incorrectly it needs to get redone!
Majority of traffic is Social Security cards. Level of traffic is steady but surprisingly light (so far). I doubt the level of in-person staffing we have right now will be sufficient for high-demand days. It's pretty much automatic that in your in-office days, you'll be manning a customer contact window.
Operations tried to install a new concept for re-opening called Schedule, Express, Refer, but it was pretty much DOA, as it was overly complicated and relied on customers answering their phones when they're supposed to (a coin flip at best at anytime). We went back to using common sense and staying adaptable, much like we did before the closures.
Social Security cards while we were closed was one of the more wasteful, time-consuming workloads so being open largely for that is still a plus to productivity.
We're still ridiculously undermanned. The message from our Acting Commissioner that hires weren't coming from Q4 at the earliest was honest, but disheartening.
Direct Express customer service issues are a huge source of friction. I'm surprised this blog hasn't covered them more in depth, considering it's gotten to the point that we can't even get through to them on their dedicated backdoor ACH line anymore, Treasury officials and SSA met with Comerica Bank, and the end result was a read-between-the-lines message telling FOs that we can take people off of Direct Express without giving them static about it.
As of today, our office is still fairly slow. Most visitors are here for the same routing issues like 1099s, Benefit Verification Letters, and replacement SS cards. Most of the other visitors have business that can be handled over the phone so an appointment is made to call them back within 5 days. If they cant be served in 10 minutes (with a few exceptions) they are instructed someone will call them within 5 days. Thus far, all call backs have been the next business day or two. The agency needs to stop printing benefit verification letters in the office and strictly be done over the phone or over the internet. It is understood that the phones are having troubles now but hat wont be the case for long. They could even find a way to automate it if they havent done so already. For the replacement cards, we need to transition to only handling those requests if it absolutely cant be done over the internet.
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