From a press release:
As the Social Security Administration (SSA) begins transitioning back to providing full, in-person service at its more than 1,200 field offices for the first time in over two years today, it still expects large crowds, long waits, and continued service delays.
The SSA recommends that customers avoid delays and long waits by calling ahead to schedule an appointment, but has also warned the public that they may experience busy signals or dropped calls.
In a new letter led by Ways and Means Republican Leader Kevin Brady (R-TX), Subcommittee on Social Security Republican Leader Tom Reed (R-NY), and Subcommittee on Oversight Republican Leader Tom Rice (R-SC), Committee Republicans are urging Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) to hold a hearing to examine these challenges. …
13 comments:
Everyone for the past 10 years, the social security administration needs a bigger budget to higher more people and update their computer systems.
Republicans - I wonder why it's so slow we should have a special hearing on it.
Everyone - smack my head
Fixing Social Security customer service is not rocket science. Without too much detail it requires:
- Political will on part of Congress and the president to provide increased funding;
- Upper management engaged in fixing severe structural/process inefficiencies;
- At the PCs: Staffing at levels targeting a zero backlog within 3 years; further IT modernization targeting inefficient workloads; an updated EC which eliminates most A101 workloads; Elimination of SPIKE assignments;
- A phone system which targets Sixth Sigma performance;
- At the TSCs: Staffing levels which all but eliminate the need for the FO GI line;
- At the FOs: Sufficient staffing to cover both those workloads which can only happen at an FO AND acknowledge the public service imperative of timely walk-in service:
- Assessment of whether there are any efficiency gains in opening further urban card centers, whether standalone or co-located;
- Root and stem revision of our broken training system.
@ 1:22 - That’s not at all how government works. Maybe it should, but it doesn’t and it never will.
SSA wants backlogs and work in reserve. The agency has no intention of ever staffing at levels that would eliminate pending work.
The one think I learned when coming from private sector work to the government was that a “common sense” approach to anything is not an option.
@122
No backlogs at PC? Backlogs that are less than a week old are not all bad. If there were to be a lull and no one had anything to do, that would be an inefficient use of taxpayer money.
Re TSC fully staffed so FOs didn't have a need for GI line--I think there will always be a need for FO GI line but even if that's not a good idea, ditto re PC being all caught up. To have the bodies to answer all the calls at TSC without spike help means some times in the month TSC will be inefficient.
Stop training via VOD would be a good start. It's hard to think of a very proficient CS or CSR that has emerged from training in the last 10 years.
EC has eliminated many of the 101s that had to be done previously. Almost all d/e cases were 101s before the A101. Over the past 20+ years, more and more claims that required an A101 are not able to be processed in EC. Agree with you that more could be EC but some things like combined family maxes will not be EC for a very long time.
@345 Common sense and SSA do not belong in the same sentence. I have made suggestions to improve times and SDO numbers that management seemed to think were good ideas but they never implemented them, basically saying that they were good ideas for ME but they didn't want to bother to advise others to do the same thing.
1:22 Has nailed mucho salient points ... VOD training does not work to create a proficient CS w/ 3 yrs... All TSC does is refer callers to the FO for anything other the most basic ... There is clearly an issue w/ telephone technology ( not available many times .. was the contract granted to the lowest bidder ) .... BTW I had 4 calls today from the same caller .. did not follow my instructions... the case is pending @ DDS !!
@ 4:13 pm
Exactly my point about common sense. I have been trying for 20 years to get SSA to adopt things to make our processes more efficient.
Remember when we used to have the employee suggestion website where could make suggestions and even get a monetary award if they adopted the idea?
Well they liked that so much they got rid of it, lol. They don’t want us to be efficient or effective. Those are buzz words but they have no intentions changing anything.
Because the appointment process works so well! (in my snarky voice). You can call and make an appointment, but what happens when everyone needs an appointment (because they will), the appointment calendars are months out, and the call centers have to send admin messages to the FOs because there are no more slots on the appointment calendars??? We FO employees know this cycle of benes/recipients still not getting the service they need. Sadly, this whole re-opening process will be like drinking from a fire hydrant because SSA is reactive - never forward thinking. You can have hearings all you want and hire however many folks you want, the problems will still be there.
Combined family max cases with workers compensation involved, will not be processed by EC for decades, if ever.
It will always be a A101 with manual comps required. And because few technicians know how to do it correctly, these often become Congressional cases because the offset is so messed up.
MCS also has major limitations insofar as retroactivity when the month of entitlement goes back a few years.
These are actual good ideas. I think the idea of eliminating the FO GI line would be fantastic. Being able to free up phone employees for other things would be fantastic.
Also a revamp of training is really needed. Have you all had anyone go through entry level training recently? Mentors are having to fill the gaps all the time. Trainees are not prepared at all and they count against our office staffing elevens without really contributing. I have no idea how they justify doing it like this.
Finally, finishing the IT mod overall to be more flexible and intuitive and eliminating some of the PC back end workload and SSI manual inputs would speed time to pay.
But these things take money and steady leadership, neither of which the agency has.
It would be great if SSA one day would give the public the excellent service it deserves. It's pathetic that the service provided by SSA to the public is as poor as it is.
@3:45
Worked in retail (Wal-Mart) and it is very much NOT just the government that intentionally backlogs and keeps work in reserve so as to avoid unnecessary spending.
A 1-2 week backlog of a few hundred thousand items would be ideal. Our current half year backlog of over 4 million items is a public service travesty. On top of that, it produces inefficiencies in all our operational components. At the TSCs and FO GI lines this means hundreds of thousands, if not millions of unnecessary calls. At the PCs themselves, it means hundreds of thousands of duplicate and follow up requests, and the necessity to burn time triaging, rather than working the workload.
The phones.... can't they at least fix the phones. It's a 146 year old technology. One would think it would be a priority. Reporting changes by mail is slower, and documents may be lost, but at least one doesn't wait 1.5 hours to be hung up on! It's worth the price of a stamp to just contact them that way....and of course MAKE COPIES....always.
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