After an SSI claimant has been found disabled they must go through a Pre-Effectuation Review Conference (PERC) with a Social Security's field office before receiving benefits. They'll be asked about income and resources so that benefits can be correctly paid. Until the last year or so, my experience was that PERCs were done fairly quickly after a claimant was found disabled, generally within a couple of weeks. These should be done quickly. The claimants are poor and sick. Often, they need the money desperately. PERCs get homeless people off the streets, for instance. That's an urgent need.
My experience is that the PERC situation has deteriorated badly, particularly over the last six months and that things are getting worse at an accelerating pace. I'm not talking about just one field office. It's several that I'm dealing with. It often takes two months or more to get a PERC. Even after the PERC, it can take many weeks before benefits are actually authorized. That's if everything goes smoothly. God help you if things go off the tracks even a little bit. This is horrendous service. And don't get me started on windfall offsets! I'm not blaming the employees. They know how to give good service. I'm sure they'd like to. They're just overwhelmed.
How widespread is this problem? Does upper level management at Social Security have a handle on the PERC situation? Will anything other than a ton of overtime help?
I don't want to imply that the payment problems are limited to SSI. There are also major problems getting Title II benefits paid once a claimant is found disabled but I'll save that for a later post.
26 comments:
PERCs are a priority, but unfortunately the Agency has about a dozen workloads that are a priority. We do our best to have them done within two weeks, but when just one employee is on leave for a week or so, they get backed up n a hurry.
One thing that holds us up, it the attorneys that insist we do not contact the claimant, but to reach out to them first. this is about 20-25% of cases. And with more and more initial claims being filed by attorneys, we are seeing this number increase. For the attorneys that do this, please help us out by revoking this requirement!
The Agency used to preach "the right check, to the right person at the right time". I do not think this is the mantra of Baltimore anymore.
And you are right, offsets are a HUGE problem. very few SSI CRs know how to do these.
New normal
I'm having the same experience in Central Ohio lately. The local offices say they will contact the claimant within 30 days, and when more than 30 days go by, they just say the claimant will be contacted "soon". They are woefully understaffed.
I’m a CS in Ohio. I am the only SSI person in my office and I’m usually at the front desk all day. We used to have 5 SSI CS’s but no longer.
Unfortunately, I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to get them done and off my ever growing lists.
Yes, this is an ongoing problem in the offices I deal with in New Jersey. And the problem is compounded by the difficulty in calling the District Office and getting the phone answered to resolve any problem. Lately, I have been advising my clients to simply go to the DO for the PERC whether scheduled or not. Sometimes, it will get done that day or at worst, get a specific appointment set up. I know that is not ideal and is often disruptive but squeaky wheels do get attended to and if that is what it takes. so be it.
Last six months huh. Gee, what happened six months ago.
We have only lost a few CS people but the same situation as far as spending much of the day at the front desk. Not enough bodies to cover walk-ins, appointments, etc.
6 months ago we were at home all day working our percs. Now we're back in the office and get to go up to work reception or to cover the phone lines. But I forgot everyone on this site demanded that we get back into the office. Careful what you wish for.
Most SSI reps are being asked to work the lobby from 9 to 4 every day. There’s just not enough time to get much else done. I think most would rather work their PERCS than process replacement cards all damn day believe me. Restrictions on time spent at the window are hampering what can be accomplished in office as well. My advice is have your clients be willing to take a phone call before 8 am because that’s the only time many of these people have not spent interviewing walk ins.
These posts are all over the map! Yes they are critical workloads. As previously stated they usually get done in 2 weeks. Offices are open for simple items such as submission of proofs, but then end up on Work Track and sit. Just not enough competent experienced people any more to get it all done.Part of the SSI problem in my opinion is the migration of SSII to the CCE
(a web based application) replacing most of issues previously addressed in MSSICS. But for some reason the powers that be thought it too complicated. People are just afraid of the word WINDFALL Offset. The more you work them the easy they become , but yes they are labor intensive.
While telework certainly wasn’t ideal for all situations, I agree 100%. When telework was in place full time, my PERCS were up to date for the most part.
Having to work the front all day is causing quite the backlog!
SSA should consider reemployed annuitants with a pension exemption. Many would need very limited training to answer the phone, process SS-5s and work reception. This has been done in the fairly recent past when things were not half as bad as now.
It isn't a major problem here, but it is slower than it has been. My clients are getting their title II before the SSI which was not previously the case.
Is management actively trying to address any of these issues? Are they completely clueless? I understand options for addressing FO dysfunction are limited due to funding, but are they not considering steps to improve efficiency and reduce the workload for priority tasks? I can think of a few policy changes that would not require increased funding or much effort to implement. Is anything being discussed at upper management levels, or are they just waiting for the agency to collapse? Truly do not understand what central office upper management is even working on.
The agency is like a rudderless ship slowly taking on water, with an absentee captain and incompetent officers that have no interest in fixing the leak or committing to a single direction.
I am experienced enough to process items quickly but we are held to a 10 minute limit on walk on customers. If someone came in that needed a perc I used to be able to process it at the window in about 15 minutes with some exceptions of course. If I am over 10 minutes I get a message from my Supervisor asking why it’s taking so long. Management would rather we store everything in worktrack and push it off for some other time. A time that never comes. I have anxiety at work everyday choosing between helping a needy person and being called into question by management. Others feel the same. The pressure it’s real and lots of people are counting down the days until they can get out!
Reading these comments is actually sad. Besides more bodies in the FO, what else can help? It’s a common concern that CS across the regions are constantly handling walk in traffic and that is pushing everything else (PERCs) included. I saw the re-employed annuitant idea to handle basic traffic to free up CS, but what else? What policy would help? Training can’t get new employees ready for PERCs quickly because you need to understand the SSI program in its entirety to handle them as well as Windfall offsets. I think this is partially a consequence of bringing everyone back to the FO, that desk time is gone, and that extra strain has pushed people out of the agency. With low morale and so much work, the agency isn’t able to recruit like it needs to. It’s a self-limiting cycle and I truly feel bad for the CSs dealing with this and the public as well.
I retire at the end of the month. I would never consider coming back to answer phones and work reception. Not even if my pay was doubled.
They have asked annuitants to come back and help. I don't need the money so badly that I'd want to work under these conditions. When I left recently it was exactly as some have said. Work the front desk or phones much, if not all of the day, while also working a full claims specialist workload. That was a reason I left earlier than expected. It would be like rushing back on to the Titanic with a bucket to bail water. No thanks.
We can't do PERCs because we have to spend all day at the front windows processing marriage name changes and similar low priority Social Security card issues.
Shifting some of the medial work burden to claimant attorneys could work--so long as SSA gives attorneys the necessary tools/access to enable us to help. Give us access to ERE client status lists at he app/recon level at the very least. Because as it currently stands, claimant attorneys are adding to workload of FO staff via constant telephone follow ups and faxes to confirm our rep status. So both SSA staff and attorney offices are wasting more and more time on the same tasks, and wasting even more time when mistakes are made.
SSA needs to make the attorney appointment process easier. Too much time is wasted by FO staff on this issue. Allow attorneys to self-verify whether we are on record and eligible for direct payment. I realize some of this would require complicated system changes, but some of it would not. The rules around attorney appointment need to change. If the concern is fraud by claimant reps, increase penalties and sanctions. Learn from Federal Court appointment process which is mostly trust based--or start using smart forms for attorney appointment that also require yearly reporting/record retention by attorneys. There are so many obvious solutions that SSA does not even seem to be considering--increased funding cannot be the only solution.
Part of the problem is the mindset we have for the poor, every penny has to be documented or traced. How have you been living? etc. for a minimal amount of money. People qualifying for SSI were already living on the edge. Did we document everything so carefully with PPE loans or bank bail out money?
7:36 yep, it’s not enough that we have to do the CSR job all day, we are constantly hounded by mgmt and micromanaged about it as well. That 10 minute time limit is no joke. Do you need help? Did you forget to close out that interview? What’s going on? Interrupting us all day.
We nearly have as many mgmt staff in my office now as line staff, also. God forbid THEY do a perc or capability determination. Not gonna happen.
CCE is a huge problem. It’s clunky and a time suck.
Have you ever worked a front desk or answered the phone at a SSA office? If you have you would realize you would need extensive knowledge about everything SSA does. Unless you mean you want a basic secretary/receptionist to just refer work to employees who are completely overwhelmed, well yeah. But that’s a bad idea.
There's your solution. Depriortize walk-ins and prioritize appointments. Bring in new employees and train them just to handle these types of issues that are generating more of the foot traffic, while using your seasoned employees to do what they are more trained for. Maybe, you need better management. Okay, DUH! But, from what I have read, maybe they also need less management?
hire much more employees! Hire the employees at higher grades. Provide real training instead of videoes.
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