If you're a Social Security employee who thinks this is great, remember that there is little efficiency gained here. You'll feel less harried mainly because workloads are reduced by discouraging the public from doing business with Social Security in the first place and by extending time frames for service out potentially by months. There is a significant percentage of the population who aren't capable of jumping through even a few hoops. They'll wait in your waiting room to see someone but they won't call repeatedly trying to make an appointment only to get frustrated after 30 minutes or more and hang up. Yes, you can go to the field office and make an appointment there to come back in a month or two but many people won't keep that appointment. They've got problems that keep them from working and from keeping appointments. That's frustrating but those people are a significant percentage of the population the agency is supposed to be serving.
Imagine this. Your Social Security checks suddenly end. Your Medicare is terminated. All of your bank accounts and credit cards are frozen. You have no way of paying your bills or even buying food. Someone tells you that the problem is that you're been declared dead. You have no idea who decided you were dead After a month of desperation, someone tells you that the problem is at Social Security. You immediately go down to the local Social Security field office hoping for a quick resolution of the problem but all that happens is that you have to make an appointment two months out into the future. How would you feel?
31 comments:
I would feel that my congresspeople need to give the agency enough funding to conduct its business. But I guess I’m in the minority as that goes.
This is a great and much needed change. Will give us a lot of relief. Three cheers for O’Malley!
>Your Social Security checks suddenly end. Your Medicare is terminated. All of your bank accounts and credit cards are frozen. You have no way of paying your bills or even buying food. Someone tells you that the problem is that you're been declared dead. You have no idea who decided you were dead After a month of desperation, someone tells you that the problem is at Social Security.
You do realize that all of these would be what is considered a "dire need" situation, right?
>You immediately go down to the local Social Security field office hoping for a quick resolution of the problem
LOL most of these issues would probably need sent to PC to be fixed, which would NOT be a quick resolution anyways.
It is Appointment Focused not Appointment only. The business model framework document says we don’t turn people away. We are offering appointments and will prioritize the appointment when they come in. We are turning into a family medicine and urgent care in the same lobby.
No way to stop this gutted future under an incoming M.A.G.A administration. Only one way to restore SSA future,pray for a severe recession. A recession may stop the trump administration's doom day plans for SSA and the american people.
So I’ve seen the flyer too and I think we knew this was coming for enumeration, but where is everyone getting the info that ALL wall in service is ending?
If you need in person help "you must" make an appointment.
Directly out of the mouth of Martin O’Malley.
I wonder how the teleservice centers are going to handle the flood of calls to schedule appointments. And I wonder what will happen when people call the TSC to make an appointment but the calendars for most field offices are full...if I recall correctly, the TSCs can only schedule 6-8 weeks out. I also imagine a lot of bad behavior when people show up (in some cases after a lengthy trip) and are told that their only option is to make an appointment and come back in a few months. Some FOs will probably handle this by treating the people who are freaking out as dire need and serving them; others will use security to expel and ban folks from FOs.
Sounds like you need to call your Congressmen and tell them to fund the agency. Or shut up and enjoy what your fellow countrymen voted for.
I agree with you up to the point that you said many people won't keep an appointment. In my experience, both claims appointments and p/e ones are kept. There are some who won't keep them but apparently SSA isn't the only dealing with that. I get 2-3 texts from my dentist's office after I schedule an appointment, about a week ahead of time and a day or two ahead of time, reminding me to keep that appointment.
Even if Congress gave SSA all the money they wanted to hire people the service will be subpar for a year or two until the new hires are up to speed somewhat. The overwhelming work is a big factor in not retaining new hires.
This is one of the worst things to happen to this once proud Agency, something I would expect from the incoming Administration. Many people will be disenfranchised because they have no internet and no reliable phone serve or permanent address. In 25 years we we went from world class customer service to no customer service. Sad, sad day.
Pathetic. Despite record high wealth and an all-time high GDP with consistent year-over-year growth, we’ve let rich goofs like Elon Musk convince us that there just isn’t enough money out there to pay for a functioning federal government anymore. This service cut was a predictable and inevitable consequence of our willingness to buy into that austerity bulls**t.
I do not believe for one minute that this is about funding. This is about discouraging people from utilizing the services of an agency that suffers from mismanagement at the highest level. This is akin to "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" lore! Where is the LSA and SPLC on this? Why are homeless, displaced, domestic abuse victims being targeted? Many do not have transportation to and from the office in the first place and have to beg and borrow to get there. Many are not business savvy and would not work through issues involved with scheduling an appointment and then scanning a QR code to check in. At the very least, this should be considered a civil rights breach. The SCT should have a look at this barrier to justice.
Who said this was the incoming administration’s decision?
When does this happen? SSI recipients can't even change their phone number online, let alone their address.
"a functioning federal government?" Really? Where is that government? Certainly not in this country.
Friendly reminder this is O’Malley and under Joe Biden, who is still President.
The DMV does this without incident, and in fact, with greater efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. Somehow we're all still intact.
Not seeing a word of this in any outside media yet. Don't think the public is going to like this. This needs to be publicized. This agency is nothing but a rationing agency now. Also, another obvious, the donor class is getting what it wants from both of our political parties now. I'm sure full court press for privatization is coming very soon. NOSSCR and all national organizations for the disabled need to raise hell!
SSA has officially hit rock bottom. You are comparing the DMV to SSA says it all! Well done.
As far as I know, I’m pretty sure the IRS field office/tax centers operate like this as well.
appointment for service has been at state DMV where i live for 10+ years. They still take walk-ins, but be prepared to wait several hours while you watch the people with appointments walk in and out.
Text reminders, I have advocated for this for many years. Everyone else we interact with sends text reminders for appointments...doctors, plumbers, dentists, schools. The fact that SSA doesn't do this is a joke.
No need to assume which administration initiated this. It has been in the works for years and years. Name an agency that allows a free-flow of people through their doors. Or really most any other state or local public-facing office. This is a much-needed change, even though there will be growing pains. All bets are off on anything once/if we lose O’Malley anyways.
Coming soon … less employees
Making It Easier to Fire Federal Workers
Under President Trump, executive orders addressed how long federal workers have to improve their performance after receiving a bad review. The time to improve was reduced from 120 days to 30 days.
Agencies were encouraged to remove (fire) poor performers rather than suspending them.
How does SSA propose that it will provide accessible services to homeless, mentally ill citizens with no phones or internet access? That flyer should be amended to prominently describe accessible options for the vulnerable populations that SSA serves.
This policy change will cause a lot of people with limited phone and internet access to miss deadlines. What a mess that will create.
That old adage has long ago been replaced by the accurate “I have a business degree and I can save taxpayers so much money!”
Coming soon: wasting hundreds of millions of dollars re-hiring staff for the same jobs over and over due to a childlike inability to grasp that certain jobs take more than 30 days to achieve proficiency at.
@5:09: No one said that. They said it resembles something they would expect from the incoming administration. This shouldn’t be a difficult distinction to spot.
Dear Colleague letter on this: https://www.ssa.gov/news/advocates/2024/#2024-11-13
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