From Nextgov/FCW:
… That public filing outlined a regime where callers would have to log into SSA online to get a one-time code that would prove their identity in order to get help with those four transactions. Since the spring, the agency has required users to supply that pin to change their direct deposit information over the phone.
Now, an SSA spokesperson says that it will update the document “to clarify that the use of the Security Authentication PIN (SAP) feature is entirely optional.”
“We are encouraging my Social Security accountholders to use the enhanced SAP feature to quickly and securely verify their identity when calling the National 800 Number,” they said, noting that the existing processes to verify identity will remain on the agency’s phone line.
The agency had estimated that the policy requiring people to verify themselves with a PIN would send over three million people to SSA field offices, but the spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW that “beneficiaries and my Social Security accountholders will not be required to visit a field office if they do not choose to use the SAP feature.” …
3 comments:
🌮 administration.
My guess is that it was not initially going to be optional, and they were trying to sneak it into becoming policy. But now it’s caught the attention of some people and been made public, so they are backtracking. I wonder if they will circle back around at the beginning of the next fiscal year and try this again?
Most of the things they were going to require it for (address changes, request a 1099, etc.) were possible to do through mySocialSecurity. Why would anyone call the 800 number, wait on hold or for a callback, log into mySocialSecurity for a PIN (sorry, SAP), and then tell the TSC person what they were trying to do...instead of logging into mySocialSecurity and just doing what they were trying to do? Either they are calling because they can't or don't want to do stuff on the computer, or they can do the things online and won't call. A Venn diagram of people who would be asked to use the SAP process, and people who could actually do so, would have very little overlap.
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