From CU-Citizen Access:
Getting an appointment at Champaign’s [Illinois] social security district office continues to take 30 days or more, but some recipients report that once they are at the office their needs are processed quickly.
Yet the wait can be frustrating and difficult.
Kiesha Jones, a Champaign resident, said she waited an hour and a half for her initial appointment at Champaign’s Social Security Office.
“They were like, we’re only taking appointments, you’ve got to call this number. I called the number and I couldn’t get through,” she said. “Once I got through, they made an appointment about 37 days out.” …
Despite her experience, a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration said in a December email to CU-CitizenAccess that most claim appointments for disability benefits are scheduled within a month.
“The Champaign, Illinois office currently schedules the vast majority of T2 disability, SSI Blind and Disabled, and aged claim appointments within 30 days of request,” the spokesperson said. …
13 comments:
Sounds like they are interchanging claim appointments and appointments for non-claim issues. The EM governing non-claim appointments says appointments should be available within 5-days. Yet I am seeing next available appointments 3-weeks out. Hard to dissuade people from walking in if appointments are that far out.
Once again DO NOT believe anything the regime is saying. Soon it will be a national calendar and that will be even worse. If there are no appointments we still make like we are scheduling one and the person is called when one is available. Because that is so efficient!
I’m just spitballing here but why don’t they hire more employees? The public should demand that offices be properly staffed. But until then, the SSA employees are doing their best under tough work conditions.
Who reschedules appointments when we have a national calendar? That's sounds fun.
SSA is reluctant to hire more employees because of the bad optics of reversing course so soon after telling the public that the agency needed to purged. This administration doesn’t acknowledge mistakes.
“ CU-CitizenAccess previously reported the Champaign office had 11 employees in August 2024, which dropped to nine employees in March 2025.”
Bless these 9 employees.
It all depends on what the claimant needs to do. Many of the situations described here were non-claims situations (no claims from scratch). Depending on the situation, these tend to be faster.
If they walk in saying, “I want to file for Disability,” then forget it.
I’m in the area that Champaig belongs to - we’ve lost so many people that 37 days is pretty decent . Hope they don’t start checking other offices that can’t even give appts but tell people we will create a lead and get back to you ….it could be months before we schedule you mo ths out
Survey after survey show that seniors prefer in office service.
The federal government is looking to streamline its Social Security operations, and that means cutting down on the number of people who visit field offices.
The effort is designed to push people, mainly seniors, to Social Security’s app and website.
The old people need to get in touch with someone, not through machines, because of the way we grew up talking to a person, person to person," said Bernardo Velazquez, a retiree from Broward County.
Velazquez was due almost $2,800 from the government for payments he made on his Medicare plan. He said going online to recover his money was not possible.
"I tried to get in touch with them through the app, as they said, and once I tried to chat with them," he said. "I was ashamed of myself because it was a mess. I made a mess, and I could not get in touch."
Velazquez, like many seniors, prefers to do things in person. Especially when it comes to his Medicare and Social Security benefits.
The government has its preference too, to cut in half the number of in-person visits.
"I know that even firsthand from my dad, who is a full-time CPA, who’s 83 years old, dealing with your problems nimbly on a cellphone or even actually having access to a personal computer is very challenging," said Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Velazquez reached out, in person, to Wasserman Schultz's office, which expedited the process and got him his money back.
"If people are forced to deal with either the phone line, which has about an average three-hour wait, or have to try to struggle online to get their problems resolved, you’re going to have more people have trouble accessing their Social Security," she said.
Shortly after his Senate confirmation in May, Bisignano told employees in an internal call that his goal is to make SSA a “digital-first” organization, and to overhaul its website, so that more beneficiaries — primarily retirees and Americans with disabilities — can get their questions answered online, instead of over the phone or in person at field offices.
“We’re never going to be client-first if we’re not digital-first in this era,” he said. “That’s the only way we’re going to win. You’re competing with experiences that people have with Amazon. If I can get something done at Amazon, why can’t I get something done the same way with Social Security? That’s how people think.”
Are the offices closed 12/24 and or 12/26?
SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told employees in an all-staff email on Sunday that the agency will keep field offices and phone lines open on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26, “in line with our commitment to meeting the public need.” Processing centers will also be staffed virtually, and virtual administrative law judge hearings will also be held on those days.
According to internal documents obtained by Federal News Network, both SSA and the IRS are looking for volunteers to keep the agencies operating these days.
It depends. Even though they put out press releases saying the offices are open, if an office didn’t get any volunteers to work, that office is closed. So some offices are open, but not all will be. No way to know which offices those are either.
you can see which offices are closed or open only for phone service at https://www.ssa.gov/agency/emergency/ it looks like they didn't get a lot of volunteers to staff the offices this week.
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