An email from a legal assistant at my law firm to others in the firm:
Is anyone else feeling the major frustration of attempting to get tasks done and not getting very far because the DO’s new phone system?
After waiting on hold for anywhere between 50-90 mins on a regular basis, I often get hung up on or the “this isn’t our jurisdiction” response and cannot get any assistance.
Also experiencing some frustration with the cases that are filed online as now Baltimore is “helping” but really just dropping the ball on these as well.
Is there anything that can be done other than getting in touch with our useless congressperson?
No one had a response other than to say basically, "Yeah, I'm facing the same situation."
Everybody got a preview of this administration with Project 2025 and Agenda 47. Now everybody acts surprised? How many of those complainers voted for this administration? Elections have consequences.
ReplyDeleteFacts
DeleteNOT this complainer, that's for sure! The writing was on the wall. Whomever missed THAT message missed the bus a lot in grade school. 🙄
DeleteJust fax over a few more 1696s. That will get things moving for you! May as well mail a few too
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I will do that today.
DeleteHa ha. That's great. Yes, 3 or 4 more should do. No, what you need is an appointment. Yes, that's right an appointment with our Appointment Focused Service model. That should do it. Just go ahead and call the 800# number, and they'll be sure to set you up for one. Better yet, call your local FO er well, maybe try to call your local FO, and you'll get somebody somewhere you could care less to speak to but fear not,.they can also set you up for an appointment. You know what, scratch all that. I'd recommend you contact the useless Congressman. This level of service will only change with money and bodies. Somehow, I don't get the sense anybody really cares for that solution though. Enjoy!
DeleteUseless congressperson? Who voted them in?
ReplyDeleteAnyone saying “not my jurisdiction” doesn’t want to help or follow the guidance. Jurisdictional restrictions have been removed from the system. Any office can load a 1696, adjudicate a claim, process wet signatures, make address changes (though attorneys cannot report an address change), and process documents in WorkTrack regardless of which office “owns” the claim.
ReplyDeleteCan? Maybe, but not required. And there are lots of issues with inheriting work in other jurisdictions.
DeleteYou must be in one of those well staffed offices. There aren't many of those in my parts. In my parts if you take the time to process another offices work, you will end up the sucker. Do somebody else's work while your own work piles up. That is the flaw to opening up the supposed barriers to service. Now only the squeaky wheel gets service. Call and complain to another office, and they'll hook you up when your own wouldn't lift a finger? Sure, that makes sense.
DeleteThat's the same flawed logic that led to stealing FO employees to help the 800#. Let's go ahead and shift this work over there. Sure, those people have resources, the office of jurisdiction didn't. That's seems to be the solution now - assume somebody else has resources and can help.
DeleteNope, I work at a Hearing Office. We still have jurisdiction issues. Unless the case is WOUT to us, we can see, but not touch. Sorry.
DeleteNobody is going to adjudicate a 3 household 14 auxiliary retro DIB award converting to death benefits while they're on phones. Not everyone answering phones is even qualified to adjudicate claims. Nobody is doing attorney inputs on phones either. You've got to answer phones, not process PE workloads for other offices. And there's been no guidance. About anything.
DeleteYeah opening up the barriers to processing work outside of jurisdictional lines is a lot different than it making sense to actually do so. The most likely situation in an FO is one of the numerous callers who submitted an online retirement claim only to find it goes and sits in a giant pit before it's otherwise processed. Those people all call the FO hoping for some communication on the claim they filed. Those callers are the most likely people to get a helping hand. Some desperate schlub from your service area who wants some help due to the doom pit at the WSU might get some compassion that is if the CS who answered the call isn't completely sick of trying to make heads or tales of why something is so messed up in the office they just got a caller from.
Delete@11:40 is an ivory tower “how things should work” plan. All the replies are the real world responses on the barriers that keep that plan from working well.
DeleteI would like to think the reasoned response from the ivory tower would be to use the real world experience to better implement a plan.
What I really think the response will be, as @11:40 seems to be suggesting, is that the plan isn’t working well because lazy government employees are lazy.
The ivory tower does this in the same breath as adding another new workload to add to the extra 10 workloads that have already been placed on their workforce. A workforce that is already depleted because of the last ill-informed ivory tower plan of reducing the size of the workforce.
Fun Times!
Sounds like significant barriers to accessing the agency prohibiting you from effectively representing your clients. Perhaps grounds for litigation.
ReplyDelete@3:34PM my thoughts !
DeleteHahaha litigation? Another one? Please get in line
DeleteActually we are not flush. We are 60% understaffed. But we are also following the guidelines. The expectation is to resolve the call to completion. “First call resolution” has been said repeatedly by the COSS. Attorney calls and another office has rep docs pending in WT. You process in RASR and done. Now the attorney can look at the case themselves in ERE. Voila they never call again. The idea of “our office” / “another office” is gone. The idea of pride in ownership is gone. Especially when we will soon be taking claims regardless of jurisdiction soon.
ReplyDelete"this isn’t our jurisdiction" is the standard response when we don't want to deal with a messy case. SSA execs gave us a cop out :)
ReplyDelete