From Newsweek:
Millions of Social Security recipients are facing longer waits to secure claim appointments as the agency struggles to recover from historic staffing cuts. The delays affect how quickly retirees, disabled Americans and low‑income beneficiaries can access critical income and identity services. …
Internal agency data show that only 64.6 percent of initial claims were scheduled within 30 days as of July 6, down from 78.1 percent a year earlier. In some regions, the rate recently fell below 45 percent, underscoring how widespread the delays have become. …
14 comments:
BUT you didnt wait on hold when you called us! We are winning!
It's so variable. I was able to get an appointment within 24 hours for an SSI teleclaim, which was wonderful. But when trying to make an appointment for a client with a different issue (same servicing field office) the TSC said were no appointments for several months, and they only had appointments in the late afternoon, which did not work for a client who needs to be back at a homeless shelter by a particular time or she won't get a bed. I was able to call the field office and they freed up a different appointment slot so we were able to get in quickly, but I don't really understand what slots the TSCs can see versus what is actually available. I do agree that wait times on the 800 number have gone down, though if you don't know to just say "agent" when faced with a menu of choices that don't fit, I don't know if you'll ever get through!
#Winning
SSA just put out a press release a week or two back that claimed we had the best year in history and that every single metric has seen a double digit increase…
Different calendars, different systems for different purposes now. If there was an immediately available appointment, it was probably an originally scheduled slot that was just cancelled (so, luck). Appointments are essentially a luxury these days.
#winning.... we just got notified that CIO is looking for more part time "volunteers" to assist with the 1-800 and that they will be compensated with overtime .. most of CIO employees at the staff level have never worked one day in their life either at the TSC or in a field office. How on earth will a 2 day training make them capable of assisting and answering the public's questions CORRECTLY ?!
@4:50- are they giving that much training now? Last I heard it was 3 hours.
There is one potential caveat / flaw of this metric which is important to mention. For context the agency mandates we make 60 days of future appointments available. We're judged on a goal of 100% of appointments being scheduled within 30 days. This fails to account for situations where there may have been an appointment available in 15 days, but for whatever reason the person requests to schedule it at day 45. Maybe it's too soon for their desired month of entitlement. People hear it takes forever and they need to set up the appointment six months before due to delays.
This isn't to say that service hasn't seen a sharp deterioration, because it has. But moreso to point out that X% of that 64.6% includes some that chose to schedule past day 30. It's probably 1-2% but hey some of us still cafe about data accuracy. Just one of many flawed metrics we use to measure performance.
@5:56pm despicable !
but is there any reason to think more people are rejecting appointments 2 weeks away in favor of one 6 weeks away? Seems that would be fairly constant while the % getting appointments within 30 days has dropped quite a bit. I am also curious how many people are not scheduled for appointments at all--I know sometimes people are told nothing is available in the next 60 days and to call back.
There was an IT guy answering for the 800# he didnt know how to look anything up told the person, call back amd get someone else.
Probably zero hold time and we answered another call.
Winning
0h 100% what is happening .. we wont answer your question but you didnt have to wait ! Haha
I would say "imagine how much IT work isn't getting done while this guy screws around on the phones" except someone this brilliant at avoiding work was probably not getting a lot done in his previous position either.
@4:48pm and is banking on OT !
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