The witness list is out for the House Social Security Subcommittee hearing on May 17 on Strengthening Social Security's Customer Service:
- Grace Kim, Deputy Commissioner for Operations, Social Security Administration
- Tracey Gronniger, Directing Attorney, Justice in Aging
- Bethany Lilly, Senior Director of Public Policy, The Arc of the United States, on behalf of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Social Security Task Force
- Peggy Murphy, Immediate Past President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations
- Yanira Cruz, President and CEO, National Hispanic Council on Aging
- Alison Weir, Policy Advocate and Attorney, Greater Hartford Legal Aid, Hartford, Connecticut
- Rebecca Vallas, Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation
13 comments:
It would be nice if they ever had a front line worker from PC or an FO to say what's really going on.
First question to ask back to the Subcommittee:
"And what funding increase are you going to allow for any of these recommendations to occur?"
Peggy Murphy is a DM in a Field Office and she represents most managers and supervisors in local offices. They are in the thick of it every day.
...and maybe a couple/few claimants to be involved in the discussion? Maybe LISTEN to the public, for just a minute even?
Too many politicians think they know better than the people...that their opinions are the only ones that matter. Too few care that they are there to represent and are at the consent of the governed. Instead, they are there to represent the interests of those with money. That's why Congress has a 15% approval rate.
My manager thinks 12 hours of work should be done in 8 hours every day. If she was on the committee, it would be no help to FOs.
Ew. Why?
Absolutely correct, Tim. They have been there far too long and have become a ruling class of their own.
If you are operations Director for an Organization that has its phones not work for a month when there is no other way to contact then you should be fired.
Why Grace Kim still has this job needs to be addressed.
Amen.
Grace is a classic example of the Peter Principle.
ACOSS' lack of participation confirms that she is not the right person for this job. No leadership whatsoever. What a disgrace.
They really need to get Senate-confirmed leadership in place. Maybe that was the bargain that prompted Biden to nominate Andrew Biggs to the SSAB.
Questions that should be asked of Kim:
From January-April of 2022, over 2.3 million calls to the 800# did not reach the call queue due to busy lines. Even when this was successful, callers waited more the 33 minutes on average to speak to a representative. What levels of increased staffing would eliminate busy rates and reduce wait times to less than 15 minutes? What would the annual cost be?
What levels of increased FO staffing for Service Representatives would allow Claims Representatives to do claims work rather than work reception and take GI calls? What would the annual cost be?
With respect to both of the above questions, to what extent would full staffing advance the date that the trust funds would be depleted?
Why did the FO and 800# phone systems fail for weeks this spring? How has this been fixed? Who was responsible? Have any of those responsible resigned, or been subject to firing, demotion, transfer, or other reprimand?
Given the customer service failures of the Social Security Administration, why have you failed to tender your resignation?
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