Here's a note made recently by an employee at my firm about a pending disability claim that may give you some idea of the state of service at Social Security :
TC [telephone call to] ____ DO [District Office] and she said there is an initial claim that has been sitting there since 7/14/2023. She is sending it to the CR [claims representative] Mr. ____ but he is off.
In case you don't understand the context, the DO only takes the claims. They don't make medical determinations. Those are made at Disability Determination Services (DDS). Under normal circumstances -- which don't currently exist -- new claims are forwarded from the DO to DDS in a week or two. Even if there is some technical problem, the claim isn't supposed to be sitting at a DO for six months!
For this to happen there has to be no effective tickler system at the DO. I'm sure there's supposed to be one but it's broken down entirely under the enormous pressure of overwhelming workloads.
I'm not even mad at the personnel involved because I have an idea of just how overwhelmed they are. If a case happens to fall by the wayside now, we're just about at what I've described before as the "Not now. Not later. Not ever" stage of service. Problems aren't being straightened out.
And please don't blame my firm. We've been trying for three months to find out what happened to the case. It's almost impossible to get anyone on the phone. There's no smart trick that solves cases like this. There's far too many of them. We're not supposed to be Social Security's tickler system anyway.
The CR that is supposed to be doing claims (like this), is actually likely spending all their free time answering the phone line or working a walk-in window. That's all most CR's do all day, teleclaims, phones, walk-ins. Every single CR would LOVE to get to pending cases like this that need processed but management doesn't give a fuck all about it since the intake of work takes priority over the processing of pending work. Such is life.
ReplyDeleteThat's nothing new in our area and was true even before the pandemic. It took a year and filing for a writ of mandamus in federal court to get a paper request for hearing processed. Then the Hearing Office Director submitted a perjured affidavit arguing that the time to hearing would have been the same anyway. This was proven false by the agency's own data. This crime was reported to the Inspector General's office but a couple of years later she is still the Hearing Office Director. An agency that condones criminal acts on the part of its employees needs to be seriously reformed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe SSA should enlist claimant reps to assist with initial case processing. These delays and errors take alot of time to fix. Many reps would be happy to spend another 30 minutes per claim to ensure its gets processed smoothly. At the very least SSA needs to spend less time processing routine paperwork. There are multiple avenues to achieving this goal that would not require additional staff--though I agree SSA does need additional WELL TRAINED staff in the short-term. There has been a marked increase in FO errors for case processing and post-approval processing, and I am almost certain poorly trained new staff are a big cause.
ReplyDeleteHiring staff for the limited purpose of SSD case processing would be a common sense short-term fix. If you only need to train new hires in the domain of SSD case processing, they would not need 4+ years of experience to become competent at their job. Expecting new hires to handle all SSA matters is setting them up for failure and low morale. Who is making these basic organizational management decisions? The new Commissioner should replace them ASAP.
Routine paperwork = a person. Maybe not your disabled client, but still a person that needs something done.
DeleteI wonder if it was an unsigned or unattested claim. We can’t accept electronic signatures so these things can sit awhile if the claimant never answers our phone attempts and doesn’t return the wet signature page. I really wish we could take the electronic signatures as it would make life a lot easier here in the FO.
ReplyDeleteI have two dead people getting checks. One died 4/1/2020 and the other 10/27/2022. We have mailed original death certificates, faxed copies, done everything. Still they are both in pay. Now the Part D plan is trying to collect past premiums with a collection agency. We are out of death certificates.
ReplyDeleteNot feeling really confident about my upcoming retirement. They cant even stop paying dead people how are they going to get my retirement right? Making back up plans with funds in case they screw this up. It needs to be a public service announcement played during NFL playoff games that your claim may not be processed correctly or timely and have a plan to feed yourself.
We had a request for hearing sitting at the DO for 1.5 years. Despite 5 delivery attempts (3 via fax, 2 I literally walked in). DO kept saying they did not receive. 6th attempt worked after we reported it to the regional office and said we would go to the press next.
ReplyDeleteThey found all our requests tucked away in the manager's desk, after he quit.
Weird stuff. We got along with the manager fine. No idea why he would do that.
@1100 AM File your retirement online. If there is no issue (citizenship/permanent residence/etc) your claim will be processed in the WSU. Timely? Not always but you should get the money within a few months of when you should, possibly even on time.
ReplyDeleteThere is a tickler system but obviously someone or more than one person is not using it. Disability claims should go to DDS within one day unless there is work (821 needed) or some other issue but in no case should it be kept 6 months. If it has something that wrong with it the claim should have been a technical denial.
I'm not in the DO anymore but when I was, even pre-pandemic there were CRs who were on top of their tickles that did them about every day and there were those who had over 400 tickles, obviously not doing them much at all. Some tickles don't need doing if time is limited (say following up on worker's comp on a claim still at DDS) while others like getting a claim to DDS, processing any kind of claim, etc should be done fairly timely.
Being constantly called to the front to help with clearing people out of the lobby or answering phones certainly takes time away from processing claims. But until 9 AM, CRs have up to 2 hours to be working their tickles, even if it's just retickling the lower priority issues so the higher ones will be apparent and can be done.
Yes the 2 hour you mentioned. Is non existent at my FO. Mandatory training's, staff meetings, fixed shifts, follow-up’s, processing paperwork from previous day walks.mail out notices. WT items etc. When you ask for time to work on pending claims, you’re told to mange your time well. How can you manage time when there is little to non.
DeleteSo I have to do appeals, living changes, trust reviews, etc. I should be able to clear everything within 2 hours? Tell me you only work cushy T2 without telling me lol.
DeleteTime to call this--
ReplyDeleteField Offices are simply broken.
Not enough staff.
Too much work.
Claimants and recipients hurt every day by this.
We can yell and scream at SSA all we like. And SSA deserves that too because they surely make it worse.
But this is the biggest problem --
Congress needs to fund SSA to do its job.
"Being constantly called to the front to help with clearing people out of the lobby or answering phones certainly takes time away from processing claims. But until 9 AM, CRs have up to 2 hours to be working their tickles, even if it's just retickling the lower priority issues so the higher ones will be apparent and can be done."
ReplyDeleteLOL yes, of course, the out of touch " I USED to work in the FO!"
Two hours every morning (so 10 hours per week, if you're lucky) to:
Attend pointless meetings
Print out your mail, stuff envelopes, meter your own mail to go out
Do trainings
Do A101/EF101s
Work CDRs
MDWs
Overpayment waivers
Overpayment recons
Tickles,
Cases being returned from DDS
100+ random Post Entitlement forms
Medical CDRs
RZ's
PERCs
Call-aheads
Among numerous other overwhelming workloads.....
@1239 Training is a big waste of time and rarely helpful. There isn't time to get everything done but some stuff like CDRs and overpayments are low priority. Management thinks they are high priority because they want to meet some goal. A CR/CS should prioritize getting claims to DDS and processing claims. Management wants to meet every metric no matter how useless it is. The priority is getting people paid and everything else is second fiddle or worse.
DeleteExactly all of the above. The comment also assumes people get in at 7 or 8. Plenty don’t. And the PN hours are sapent tending to the front/phones.
DeleteIf the claim has been sitting at the FO since July, I’m virtually certain that this is a 3rd party claim where the claimant hasn’t returned the wet signed application
ReplyDeleteSimiliar problems with DDS. One person assigned to claim phoned client with rude demands. Our office left person one several messages. DDS finally admitted person one was abruptly no longer with DDS. Person two assigned to claim. Sent person two documents. Again our office left messages. DDS finally admitted person two abruptly no longer with DDS. Person three assigned to client and sent to CE. Client went to CE and our office phoned person three who said client was a no-show. Finally, she agreed person attended CE. Been going on about one year.
ReplyDeleteAt least your employee got through to the field office. I wait 10 mins then get disconnected, and have a long list of claims not yet at DDS after several months. I appreciate the reading material here as I sit on hold. Yes, the field offices are broken.
ReplyDeleteIt is the new telework world. Trained through an animated self directed training at a quick pace. Mentors teleworking and taking leave on in office days. New hires can't get questions answered and so work piles up.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a garbage response. The same question that can be answered in office for a trainee can be answered at home. The bigger problem is that mentors are burnt out with ither responsibilities. Not every office prioritizes training and some don’t have someone who can effectively train. And the quicker we lose competent, well-trained people to remote positions (like the VA), the more unable we are to train.
Delete@10:31 the fact that you believe you cannot accept an electronic signature is concerning.
ReplyDelete@6:41pm,
ReplyDeleteYes, you can accept an electronic signature as long as the application forms are submitted with a signed appointment of rep. However, because the forms are always invariably submitted with font signatures and usually not through the SSA portal the claimant is still required to verify that, yes, they did in fact hire that legal rep before we can accept and process them. And, since they rarely if ever return the signed summary (or the complete and entire summary which is an agency requirement, not just the signature page) we are required to review the contents of the applications submitted on their behalf with the claimant to verify that they agree with that information. We also usually have to speak to them in order to reconcile discrepant information between the paper SSI applications the legal reps submit for them (usually with all the answers checked "NO") and the information already shown on SSA records as well as to do work development to develop onset dates.
I don't blame the legal reps for the last two - the claimants NEVER tell the legal reps ANYTHING about the stuff they've already told the agency, or about the umpteen jobs that they had before filing and even the good legal reps would have no way to discover them as they lack agency resources we use like the national new hire database or various state quarterly wage databases to find unmentioned lag wages. And, work/onset development for claims filed in the last 3-5 years isn't as easy as it used to be due to the shift to temporary and gig economy jobs (i.e. filers tend to have a lot more short term jobs than they used to).
When I'd finally had enough and retired last week, I think I had about a dozen such claims still pending on my lists. I'd tried everything to speak to them - random calls during the day, sending call-in texts and call-in letters, creating and scheduling off-calendar appointments (wasting time I really couldn't afford to waste) to try to run them down and speak to them. No answers to the calls or texts, they never bother to keep appointments scheduled, and even the legal reps couldn't get their own clients to return our calls. Granted, the majority of these cases are from the big LTD disability mill firms, but even the good legal reps I know are having the same problems with their clients.
The IDIB process is an unmitigated disaster. Garbage in-garbage out.
11:50 "you should get your money in a few months" Ok, how would you like to hear that about your next paycheck?
ReplyDeleteHeard it during the shutdowns…thanks
DeleteWhen I retired it took OPM four months to start my pension. Smart a__.
Delete@816 I didn't work for WSU so I don't know their stats but considering almost all internet RIB claims were processed by them, I heard few complaints about timeliness. Occasionally they'd sit on a claim for no reason but that wasn't the norm. My point being one doesn't have to deal with the local overworked FO to file retirement.
DeleteWhen I quit a year ago it was taking WSU 3-4 months. Everyday we had to call and get a claim transferred to us because the claimant was in the office wondering about the status.
DeleteHire leftover employees, get leftover work.
ReplyDeleteSee 10:32 and 10:48 for proof.
@319 it was taking WSU months on the claims where people came in to check status. But WSU volume was really high and not that many people came in to check. The numbers would have been outrageously high if all their claims were taking 3 months. I didn't understand why sometimes or maybe always they held simple RIB claims months until the MOE. I'd think once you could clear the claims, you'd want them off your list. But maybe they are swamped as bad as the FOs are.
ReplyDelete@3:42pm,
ReplyDeleteThe issue with WSU claims is both understaffing and the fact that the online claims process is designed to maximize online intake using a "hey stupid" policy of requiring only the most bare minimal error checking on the claims being submitted. As a result, the majority of the RIB claims (and even some Medicare claims) aren't completed right (impossible MOEs, invalid work estimates, and various other discrepancies) and thus require claimant contact to correct and adjudicate them.
Unfortunately, those contacts require employees that the agency simply doesn't have available, and are made more complex by the fact that a lot of online filers are still working and can't or don't return calls during business hours. We also see a lot of issues regarding fraudulent filings that limit how the agency can make contacts with the claim submitters.
Then, there is also the WSU management stupidity of not putting actual contact numbers with extensions where someone will actually answer return calls regarding call-in letters. Depending upon the assistance unit involved, they either direct the claimants to phone answering banks with huge queues that you can't ever get through on, or to extensions with voicemails providing instructions to leave voicemail messages that never, ever get read or returned. In short, just like everywhere else in the agency....
Those that haven’t worked in an FO and have the audacity to complain can take a hike. You’d last about 10 minutes. What a bunch of assholes you all are.
ReplyDeleteWell said
DeleteThe field office here does their part. When front office requests pile up, people are given appointments. Claims are taken by workers by appointment. As a rep, I will sometimes do a SSDI claim but not an SSI claim. Of course, I do all the appeals online. My problems have been with cases stagnatine at DDS.
ReplyDelete