From WCMH in Columbus, OH:
Kathleen McGovern’s husband, Gilbert, died in September. In October, McGovern began the process of settling his affairs, including finances.
“As I understood it, I was eligible to collect my husband’s social security because his was more than what mine was,” said McGovern.
About $600 more. So, McGovern called the social security office in Worthington, to apply for widow’s benefits. She spoke with a representative, who told McGovern that she couldn’t apply online.
“And she said, ‘No, you can’t do it online either. You have to come in with an appointment to our office, and make your application here,'” said McGovern. “I can’t do it at any other office either. Just that one.”
But McGovern said the representative also told her that wouldn’t be possible, at least for a while, because as of that day, the office was not taking any more appointments. McGovern said she was told to call again, in case that changed. She did, but said she could never get through. ...
Unsure of what to do, McGovern called Better Call 4. We spoke on October 20. I reached out to the Social Security Administration on October 26, and that same afternoon, got a call from a representative, asking for McGovern’s contact information.
The next day, McGovern called Better Call 4 again, to tell us that the agency called her, and took her application over the phone — adding that a lump sum settlement would be deposited in her bank account the following day. ...
I don't know whether there's a systems limitation that prevents filing a claim online in this situation. There shouldn't be but maybe there is. I don't think agency employees are ever supposed to say they can't make an appointment. She should have been able to take care of her business over the telephone at the least and she should be able to deal with any Social Security field office.
If you're a Social Security employee, don't say it couldn't have happened as this woman has described it. I've talked with too many Social Security employees who tried to BS me. It doesn't happen often but it happens and it probably happens a lot more frequently with claimants than it does with an attorney like me.
The appointment calendar was probably full. Happens often in offices that are under staffed or very busy offices. The next day, more appointments open up, two months out and they will be gone by noon. Our office lost 150-200 appointment s per month when we reopened because 4 claims reps per day were taken off the schedule to answer phones and assist with the lobby. That is a lot of appointment slots to lose.
ReplyDeleteThere are various claims that cannot be done online. As here, you can't do a survivor's claim online. You can't do a Child Claim or DAC claim online. And, of course, you can't do an SSI claim online.
ReplyDeleteIf you are in current pay on a retirement claim, you cannot file a Title II disability claim online either. You can file both together online if it is an initial claim for both.
You can now file a request online for an SSI appointment but that may not happen for a month or two until the appointment takes place.
You cannot file an appeal of a continuance/cessation case online. You cannot appeal an onset date issue online. You can appeal non-medical issues such as overpayment online using the non-medical appeal tool but that may not actually take place until you follow up with a telephone call to check status.
You can print out and file all of these claims/appeals using paper forms which can be found online and then mail/fax to Social Security but you cannot use email as their filter is supposed to block forms with personal identifying information like SS numbers from going through. And, most of these forms are far from intuitive especially any disability reports.
You can call to either verify receipt of filed paper forms but that depends on being able to get through to the District Office (better lately but still not good) and you can make appointments the same way. But that is depending on how far out, if ever, appointments are being scheduled at any particular time.
Online is a great tool for when it works but sadly there are too many holes where it doesn't work and that can only be remedied by an effective telephone contact system which the SSA does not have.
The system used to establish leads for benefits only allows FO staff to schedule appointments two months in the future. If all the slots for the next two months are filled, then FO staff are unable to make appointments. FO managers have experimented with creative ways of dealing with this situation, but all these ideas usually seem to fall short of customer satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason this customer had the fortune of a representative calling and taking the claim as soon as they did is because the Agency wanted to avoid a public relations fiasco when a local new reporter called.
Maybe employees could just drop everything and take RSHI claims when people call in if they weren’t so busy inputting 1696s and dealing with the duplicate “incompleted” DIB claims submitted online, via fax, and via mail by these expert attorneys.
ReplyDeleteSure helps to contact a public affairs type office/station/reporter. Can't have bad publicity for SSA! It just amazes me how fast things happen when one contacts a news station (or equivalent)! It's simply phenomenal, so much so, I think one has a better chance of a ufo landing in ones back yard if they don't go public.
ReplyDeleteFor every case they push to the front of the line to avoid a public relations issue, someone else’s claim gets put on the back burner.
Delete@3:39 PM
ReplyDeleteI am happy that this claimant got her issue resolved. However, if the underlying cause for the slow service is understaffing, then the net result here may be that someone, who has been waiting for a while, probably had to wait a little longer because this claimant jumped the line. Having every claimant call a TV station is not the answer.
It is time for Social Security to make hiring qualified people priority number one. In the meantime, could they entice recent retirees to return on a part-time/temporary remote work basis to help with the backlog? OHO used to bring back retired ALJs for that purpose. Here the claimant’s application was done over the phone, which could have been handled by a retiree, freeing up another employee to handle office appointments.
A friend of a friend walked into an office on Friday morning to file for retirement. He is 63. They told him to file online because they couldn't take care of him that day and couldn't give him an appointment for over a month.
ReplyDeleteI will have to do it for him as he is definitely not computer literate. And he's also a pain, freaking out about technology and the government. Not gonna be fun.
I usually have to wait 3 months for a doctor appointment or dental appointment. Waiting 4-5 weeks is actually quite reasonable to file for your retirement considering SSA helps millions of people a year.
DeleteA) We're a federal agency. Any office can take a claim.
ReplyDeleteB) Their appointment calendar filled up and they were being buttheads about opening up slots further out, as we get static from Regional Office if our calendar is out past a certain point. There are various ways the office can try to reel their appointment calendar in, most involve robbing Peter to pay Paul. This office did it the exact wrong way, by refusing to provide service.
C) The service rep could have taken their information, entered it in when the calendar got more slots added, then made the appointment and called them back. I understand that we're being overwhelmed by ENDLESS phone calls, but there are still people on the other end of the line.
D) You can't do survivor claims online. And if that region's Workload Support Unit is anything like ours, you wouldn't want them handling it either.
Dirty little secret is that you should be able to go into any SSA office to file a claim. I have done it myself several times. Some employees will tell you this is wrong. Ask them to cite to a published rule.
ReplyDeleteYou can file at any office but they may just transfer it to your servicing office, especially if you need additional documents or it's a disability claim.
DeleteWe send consumers to offices outside the area because our FO and DO are just not capable right now. We send the folks 45 minutes away, they usually get it taken care of that day or the next. Gotta do what you gotta do these days. Flexibility is key.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say they were not capable of keeping up, but the original kinda stands too.
ReplyDeleteFreudian omission i guess.
@1:30 We used to do a lot of in office claims, especially for Widows. Unfortunately, staffing limitations due to telework, trainees and losses have eliminated that possibility. Also, we are encouraged to limit our in-office contact with the public the quick actions and a claim is not a quick action.
ReplyDeleteThe Agency had two years to come up with a different business model for post pandemic service. However, they kept it as business as normal, with less staff in the office to help the public.
@9:59 I agree, which is why they should have given this person an appointment. 4-5 weeks a reasonable timeline for most SSA issues. SSA has serious managerial issues if FO staff think they cannot scheudle an appointment more than a few weeks out. This is still way better than the 4 month period before FO reopening where it was also impossible to reach a FO by phone.
ReplyDeleteanon@10:31AM,
ReplyDeleteIt isn't that FO staff think they can't schedule appointments, but rather that management (who controls the appointment calendars) in many instances simply aren't willing to open the slots up because that would get them a come to Jesus call from some assistant for an idiot AD.
Of course, in the end, in many of these problem offices it probably wouldn't matter if they did because the calendars would just fill totally up very quickly and we'll just be in the same position again in a few weeks.
The biggest issue we have now is that higher level management (from the ADs on up) are deluding themselves into thinking that this will just "blow over" like it always has in the past. The higher up you go, the worse these delusions are. By doing it this way, management has a little leeway to hide their problems (i.e. they can't hide the problem if the entire appointment calendar is totally maxed out so they loose their "flexibility" as management terms it).
In the end, the problem boils down to this: it has never in its history been this understaffed relative to number of beneficiaries requesting services in the job positions that actually accomplish the actual work.
And, of the people it has in those positions, a lot of them are just not very good at what they do -- they are the leftovers after all the competent people retired or quit in those units. They frequently only have a clue about what they are doing half the time. In the other half, the supervisors push them so they just "wing it" to get it off their desk. This, of course, results in everything getting worse because it wasn't done right and someone will have to waste valuable time going back and eventually redoing it correctly. I swear, I spend more time fixing problems created by these idiots and their equally competent supervisors now than I get to spend processing my own workloads.
At this point, I feel that there is no possibility that this situation can be salvaged by current management -- it will simply represent the status quo going forward.