From National Public Radio (which is still a thing):
Phone calls to local Social Security offices are currently being rerouted to other field offices — often to staff who don't have jurisdiction over the caller's case, employees say.
Disability advocates and experts warn this is making it harder for people to get help. ...
In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for the agency said that "the goal of the phone sharing system is to enhance customer service by reducing wait times and addressing customer needs at the first point of contact. ...
But Angela Digeronimo, a claims specialist in Woodbridge, N.J., and president of a union that represents employees at 25 offices in the state, told NPR this new system creates a "hit or miss" situation for people calling in to their local office.
Digeronimo said the intention of this change "may have been to not have callers waiting," which is a good thing. But in practice, she said, it delays getting an issue sorted if a caller is rerouted to a local office that can't actually fix their problem.
"If it's someone else's office, the jurisdiction is someone else's," she said. "You can't take action on it because your office does not have the ability to clear that claim. You have to refer it over to the servicing office, which is what the member of the public thought they were doing. So, it gets a little bit cumbersome." ...
We have a very long way to go if anybody honestly thinks we're capable of operating like a national system. Quite honestly, with some problems there are only one or two people in an office capable of understanding how to fix a problem. Sending calls all over an area or the country helps nothing in terms of resolving problems. Distant phone service works great for basic questions any monkey can answer, but challenging cases only result in more waste with area or national calling. FO employees knew the weakness of the 800# system long ago. Referrals have always been a waste of time. MDWs, EPATH referrals have always been a waste of time. Customers have always wanted a solution at the first point of contact not an appointment or a referral to a deep pit of backlogged cases. Want to make a difference, grow FOs and increase local phone service. That might actually make a dent at first point of contact service.
ReplyDeleteIt’s only a matter of time before the calls are outsourced to other countries like many Fortune 500 companies.
ReplyDeleteNot much different than 800 number offices answering calls, is it?
ReplyDeleteThe gist of the report and the union reps claim is misleading. There are plenty of routine items--COA, direct deposit, status checks, general info--that can be handled by any office and competent rep. Not necessarily a bad idea--though not ideal--for folks with simple issues or questions.
ReplyDeletecan you do direct deposit change over the phone now? or would whatever office picks up just have to direct people to mySSA or schedule them an appointment? And status checks work for some things, but if the question is "did you deal with the document mailed/faxed/dropped off?" and it hasn't been properly entered into WorkTrack yet, the quality of the response is going to be better when it's provided by someone who can get up and look for the document than by someone 1000 miles away.
DeleteContact your MAGA legislators since they run this Titanic ship.
DeleteDudek and Doge did this and damage is tremendous. The current COSS and his sr mgmt don’t have a clue. They don’t understand nor care to understand policy, how the programs came to be, and the politics between the states and SSA.
ReplyDeleteI called the 1-800 number yesterday. The wait time was 112 minutes. Things are getting better for sure! 🤡🤡🤡
ReplyDeleteHaving worked in the field for nearly 20 years this last administration appears to be purposely trying to make things harder.
ReplyDeleteJust like any good security practice you limit access on cases to the local office, but sharing calls across multiple states and expecting things to be solved is idiotic.
We have “newer” programs to fix the cobol system but it is just an overly that slows down everything. Example to schedule an appointment which used to take 30 seconds now takes over 5 minutes due to having so many mouse clicks. We have systems in the consolidated claims experience (CCE) but you still have to go back to PCOM (COBOL) to finish the SSI claims. And the number of workarounds outnumber the actual process.
Retirement/survivors is still using PCOM but they are trying to move to CCE, which will be a disaster. Which means slower public service not faster.
This is the problem of assigning political puppets to senior and lead positions