The mix of long outside lines and 95-degree heat is becoming a problem for some elderly and disabled customers at the Social Security Administration office in Georgetown.
“This is ridiculous,” said Melanie Barrier.
Barrier is one of the many people who lined up Thursday at 3010 Williams Drive. ...
The Georgetown woman contacted CBS Austin about the problem and met us at the social security office. On Friday, signs said the estimated wait time was 150 minutes or two and a half hours. ...
So, hear me out now... is it so hard for people to make appointments? I get it, that's a long time and it's difficult for a lot of customers, but SSA is never going get the funding to reach staffing levels that will be able to just welcome people in the door and get started right away. It's time to be just a little more realistic, and also expect customers to start to think ahead, just like they have to do for every other appointment in their lives.
ReplyDeleteDo you just show up at the Dr office? Va? Hell, I had to wait six week for a vet appt. Two weeks for a emissions testing for my car. Going to the zoo here you get advance tickets still due to capacity restrictions. I just plan accordingly. I’m a big girl.
ReplyDeleteAny EMERGENCY ie-stage 4 cancer, etc- gets you same day PHONE service
I’m with 741. This is not 1950. We also won’t come to your house and take your claim. Sorry.
So people should have to lose money, maybe a job offer, maybe lose more because it isnt the 1950's. I get it, as long as it isnt me I dont care.
ReplyDeleteAwesome stuff.
7:41 and 8:53, have you tried calling SSA recently? You could be on hold for ages, you could just get a busy signal, you can get hold music and then disconnected over and over...or if you do get through, you often get told that all the appointments they have are booked (because the TSCs only have a few weeks of appointment slots, and not as many slots a day as the FOs actually have) and you should try back at some unspecified "later" time.
ReplyDeleteIf it were easy to make appointments online or by phone, lots more people would do it (not all...if you don't have a phone or you've got a severe mental illness or something you'll probably still just show up but it would cut down on lines). But scheduling an appointment at SSA is not like doing it at my doctor, dentist, or bank.
No... just no. This is not the way SSA should function. Gov't failure on reopening.
ReplyDeleteThe TSC’s have the same access to appointment slots as the FO.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that you font have enough staff to accommodate all the appts slots.
And in my FO, we had to remove slots to accommodate walk-in traffic so there’s that also.
Why would someone lose a job? Oh you mean because they lost their SSN card? Or maybe got an e-verify like the guy I had the other day who decided to give his employer his child’s SSN instead of his own. (And no, they were not even close in numbers or sequence).
I mean for Pete’s sake, everyone in this country can’t be disabled or elderly.
Wow. Just wow. Virtue signaling, "victim" blaming/shaming. Nice. Except if any doctor, bank, vet, mechanic or other business entity pissed me off for any reason, I could switch and find one that isn't so inconvenient. Cannot do that with the US Government. I may be a customer to my doctor or mechanic, but it's not the same with the government. You want me to be a good customer, then let me have the ability of a customer to pick another business to conduct my business with. Until then, I'm a citizen accessing government services, not some schmoe waiting in line at the local Winn-Dixie. The comparison with private business is not apples to apples.
ReplyDeleteIgnores the fact that for many on the fringes, support systems from way too many third party entities (including oter arms of local, state and federal government) include something "SSA" in their business plans. Whether its a verified ssn, or far too frequently, a specific 3rd party form that only ssa can complete (online SSA verification NOT accepted), to a question why SSA did something that simply cannot wait 6 weeks to begin to fix.
It is funny, a private business with so much demand would likely realize they are leaving money on the table and work to satisfy consumer demand better and faster. But SSA is a service organization, not a profit making business who happens to be having huge demands and throwing the priority of service to the public to the side in a desperate attempt to not simply fail. Sure Congress has failed utterly for over 20 years, but when I need something from SSA to get my new job, I simply don't care.
But acting like their plan works for all the people who need to interact with them and that pointing out where things don't work is not an organizational issue but a problem brought on by the "customer" themselves is just plain crap. It's a band aid solution that ought to make Congress ashamed of itself, but that won't happen.
Not blaming all customers.. Saying the ‘problem’ is largely imaginary. And the people filling offices are not ones getting SSNs for jobs. It’s replacement cards for other reasons, benefit verifications letters, questions about non SSA things.
ReplyDeleteUse all the words you want to make people feel better about not having personal responsibility.
How about instead, deal with reality and teach them to use email and their online account, social workers and lawyers, since you are all so service oriented. Help them get a library card so they can use the computers their and free fax services many have. Make sure they get their free cell phones and discounted internet.
That is what the private sector is supposed to do. For the umpteenth time. We. Are. Not. Social. Workers. Help them help themselves.
All I ever hear is how heartless we are, complaints, and no realistic solutions.
@5:16
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be forgetting a time in the not so distant past where SSA was providing better service at Field Offices and payment centers. Attorneys are not making up the fact that there have been dramatic service declines in the last few years. We are not asking that SSA fulfill some role that they never held...prior level of service from 2018 would satisfy me.
Also your argument does not make any sense. In what world is the private sector supposed to provide free services to persons trying to access basic government services? Last I checked the private sector is interested in making $$...not assisting the poor/disabled. And those "private sector" Social Workers wouldn't not exist without government funding. Look up what % of US GDP is spent on healthcare, and yearly US government spending per capita. You are just outsourcing support of these people to other government funded entities (libraries are also government funded). How is that better or more efficient?
There have been plenty of realistic solutions offered. But none of them work without increasing the admin budget of SSA. You cannot cut the admin budget (adjusted for inflation it is lower), cut total agency employees, and under-invest in tech/IT infrastructure -- and still expect the agency to function as well as it did 10 years ago when they were servicing fewer Americans. FO staff are not to blame for management deficiencies and underfunding, but if you seriously believe that SSA cannot do better, you are part of the problem.
Agreed 5:16
ReplyDeleteCan some of you private sector people please help the people in need find a way to access our services as currently available?
We cannot change things on our end no matter how much you complain and call us names. We can only provide service with in the constraints set up by Congress and the agency.
So, should SSA not be giving people an estimate of how long the wait is? What’s the complaint about letting people decide if their business is worth waiting? The wait time isn’t preprinted on the signs, it’s dry erase marker and should be updated regularly, when the manager has a minute to do so.
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ReplyDelete12:37 I agree the signs are a good idea. It's like going to a restaurant and if they tell me it's a 45 minute wait, we can decide if it's worth it, or if not come back another time. At least I know how long the wait will be and can decide.
Also perhaps the will induce some SSA office walk-ins to try other methods: appointments, online , or telephone calls. Some people will not get with new technology, unless they are provided an incentive to do so.
You cant just go to another place to get your SSA card replaced. I can get a cheeseburger anywhere, getting what is needed for employment or keeping other benefits going only happens at a place that was closed to the public for two years when everything else was open.
ReplyDeleteKind of comparing apples to super massive black holes.
The only answer is outsourcing.
It is going to happen. People can be trained, nobody at SSA was born with the knowledge. They dont have to know everything, just enough to handle the standard claim, because, unlike the blog posts here, not every DIB claim has family max and 30 years of WC in it. Not every retirement is an A101. Get over it, truly it doesnt take a genius, it does take repetition.
Please outsource … we need help
ReplyDeleteRepetitiously miss entitlements and create payment errors. You're just typing to be typing.
ReplyDelete