While it is not uncommon for someone upset about a law to be told “You should call Congress,” the reality is that Congress is supposed to do more than just legislate. Early in American history, some of the most important work Congress performed was constituent service. For example, members of Congress often needed to help Revolutionary War veterans secure pensions promised by the government.
It’s the same today.
Constituent service is as important as ever in part because federal agencies are struggling to serve the public effectively. This can be seen in recent press reports that elderly and disabled people have had to wait in long lines in the hot sun of Florida, New Mexico, and Texas just to get service from understaffed local Social Security offices. ...
Why is this happening? Because appropriators in the current Congress cut nearly $1 billion from President Biden’s customer service budget for the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Congress fully expects that the complaining public will gripe to SSA, not to Congress. ...
Given that Congress is the root cause of the problem, it’s reasonable to think it should be part of the solution.
Providing greater levels of constituent service is one way Congress can help. ...
Congress needs to appreciate the consequences of its poor decisions on funding — and needs to try to perform better in the future.
Today, it is easy for Congress to systematically underfund federal agencies and then hide behind those agencies (or even blame them) when things get ugly. Putting Congress on the front lines of service will — in a very real fashion — force elected leaders and congressional staff to deal with the mistakes they make. ...
It's an old dodge. Underfund the agency and then blame poor service on agency leadership. Social Security management has the inevitable problems one would expect at a large agency but that's not why people have to line up before dawn outside Social Security field offices. That's 100% the fault of elected officials and particularly Republican elected officials who like to "cut it until it bleeds and then complain about the blood stains", to quote an old line.
All that accomplishes is the Rep's office makes a call and the agency places that particular issue to the front of the line, thereby delaying the work on all the other cases that were pending even further behind. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
ReplyDeleteThere's a separate screen in OHO case management software to indicate if a claim involves a Congressional query but in just about a decade of doing this, I've seen that screen active on my hearings less than half a dozen times...in a decade.
ReplyDeleteHelps that now there is no OHO hearing backlog, unless it's a repped claimant who's been declining a phone hearing for 2.5 years.
I only contact a congressperson's office for the most difficult cases that my arguing can't resolve.
ReplyDeleteOnce I had a serious issue with a DDS person, and a very efficient person in Thad Cochran's office took care of things. Usually, the director of our local SSA office can work things out.
“Arguing” “director” - immediately I can tell you NEVER know what you’re talking about.
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ReplyDeleteThe Congressional units in the PSC will be overwhelmed with Congressional cases, if too many people call their Congressional representative.
This will result in delaying the processing of the true dire need cases in the Congressional Liaison units.
Agreed. I handled a few Congressional where the claimant filed a disability claim a month ago and wanted status. This was when phones were answered most of the time. A total waste of resources.
DeleteThe members of Congress all assign a bunch of staffers to keep the riff-raff away from them.
ReplyDeleteThey don't know or even care what problems their constituents are having, as it isn't happening to people that matter (i.e. the lobbyists with the thick checkbooks and deep slush funds). I suspect most of them don't even keep records of the inquiries their staff makes on cases. The only exception is when something happens that will get them a sound bite on the news.
Gotta love them soundbites at election time.
It's nonsensical that any person has to get a Congressional person involved just to get their claim handled properly at SSA.
ReplyDelete@8:59. Those of us who deal with the system have become accustomed to cases taking months and years. But, put yourself in the shoes of a claimant who worked hard all their lives and knows nothing about the disability system. Something happened that made them unable to work anymore and they are sitting there trying to figure out how they are going to keep paying their bills. They have no idea the system is so badly broken that it processing cases is absurdly slow. They have no idea that claimants must go for months and years without income. They paid in their social security taxes and assumed those benefits would be there when they need them, not a couple of years down the road after they have lost everything. They should be able to expect propmpt processing of their cases and a prompt decision. So, instead of seeing them as a "waste of resources," these congressman and senators should be spending their time trying to improve the system. They should ogo back to being legislators instead of spending all their time on political witchhunts. I wonder how much time Adam Schiff has actually spent on legislation that will actually improve the lives of his constituents instead of chasing garbage like the Trump/Russia conspiracy that wasn't. I know many on here won't like this but, I agree with those who believe the administrative state needs to be reigned in. Congress needs to get back to legislating and fixing problems. They haven't done much of that in a veery long time and have adbidcated that responsibility to bureuacrats.
ReplyDeleteNot talking about cases that take forever but non TERI cases that have taken a month. No call made to the CR/CS to ask about status but instead a visit to Congressional office across the parking lot from SSA office. That is a waste of resources.
DeleteDoesn't help if your Congressman is in a Trump +30 district, set on making a national image for himself, and set his office's phone to "send to voicemail". You thing Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor-Green or Lauren Boebert make constituent services a priority?
ReplyDeleteA lot of people seem to have missed Mr. Hall's point, which is not that claimant should start pestering their Congresspeople to intervene in their claims, but that people should be pestering their Congresspeople to give SSA the money it needs to do its job. Because as it stands, Congress knows it can starve SSA for funds, and the claimants who suffer the consequences will blame the folks at SSA, without ever considering their own Congressperson's role in the problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with his sentiment, though I think there are some much needed structural reforms that need to happen within SSA, too. After all, as long as there continue to be no real consequences for the doctors and judges who get it wrong 50%+ of the time, giving them more time to process the cases is going to amount to nothing more than paying them to slack off even more while doing the same lousy work. And to get that in motion, we're going to need some managers who don't just accept it as a fact of life that the work is too hard to to right more than ~305 to 50% of the time. I don't believe I've met a single one of those yet, and I've been around a while.
I called into a talk show, where I talked with my Senator for about 2 minutes. Q & A. He told me, "Call my office, and we'll so what we can to help you!" His staff admitted that SSA "isn't particularly responsive," to Congressional Inquiries about Hearing waits, and ultimately, about favorable decisions. Ultimately, it's up to the whim of the ALJ. Some "truly disabled" people get denied, while other "clearly less disabled" people get approved. I also contacted for inquiries, my other Senator and my Congressman. Then, a new Congressman. Did this make any difference? I don't think it had any meaningful effect on my case. It took me nearly six years to get SSDI. The 2 decisions...It's like they (ALJs) are talking about 2 completely different people. Is really just about funding money? Approve more faster. Then you won't have to deal with Congressional Inquiries. Don't act like it's a murder trial and require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If you wrongfully deny someone, do you think they are just going to go away? Why are you contributing to their pain and suffering? Are they people to you, or just widgets?
ReplyDeleteCongressional cases get quicker action but they won't turn a denial into an allowance. Quicker doesn't mean it's all that much quicker at times.
DeleteWhen I started I was asked if I wanted to sign Congressional action letters or have the system auto-sign for me.
ReplyDeleteI never look at the field to see there is a Congressional flag because I don’t want to know, I don’t want it in my mind.
I don’t schedule so I’ve no idea if brings cases to the front of the line sooner and suspect that unless there is a processing metric to clear them in X days that it doesn’t do anything for scheduling either.
Charles is right though. People should be demanding that Social Security have the resources to handle the rising load and with more Boomers hitting retirement age the demand for services is rising, especially at field offices.