A notice addressed to Social Security advocates:
Expanded Support for Customers Seeking Survivor Benefits
Date:
Dear Colleague,
We are pleased to share recent improvements we have made to better serve customers seeking Social Security survivor benefits.
To better support customers applying for survivor benefits during a difficult time, we have enhanced our National 800 Number call routing process. Callers reporting a death or seeking to apply for survivor benefits are now connected more quickly to employees trained to assist with these requests.
As part of this effort, we established a dedicated queue of trained agents to take and adjudicate survivor claims. We have enhanced support for this queue to improve our capacity and reduce delays. These changes help ensure that customers receive timely, specialized assistance while reducing wait times and minimizing the need for in-person office visits.
Since launching this dedicated queue last July, we have helped over 60,000 survivors without them needing to visit an office.
Looking ahead, we will continue refining our call routing and staffing strategies to further improve customer service.
Thank you for your continued partnership and support.
Sincerely,
Nick PerrineChief Communications Officer
Great but it also means others wait longer. “Dedicated queue”? What’s that?
I have said this for 10 years just get rid of the schedule and take it as we get them!
ReplyDeleteThis is potentially a very good thing, if executed well. Survivor applicants are usually due immediately benefits, and the eligibility requirements are straightforward for the majority of non-DWB/DAC cases. But unlike retirement and spousal benefits, there is not an online filing option for them.
ReplyDeleteMichelle King was trying to get this established before she left the agency; the AWS system now in place makes it easier to implement than it would have been then.
The article says this new feature was added last July.
DeleteWhy do survivors cases get priority? There are thousands of cancer cases pending at the hearings offices. It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole with peoples lives. The agency needs to hire additional staff in order to meet the agency’s goals.
ReplyDeleteApples and oranges. Completely different employees trained for completely different jobs.
DeleteSurvivor benefits are one of the more error-prone calculations (and the most likely to involve direct trade-off choices on the claimant's part, which require us advising them on the pros/cons of each choice) we have. I'm ok with anything that takes answering questions about them out of the hands of the TSC.
Nope. These are retirement and disability claim specialist working these lines. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul.
DeleteSmoke and mirrors. They did not hire new people to work these lines and a huge chunk of the day is answering 800# calls.
ReplyDeleteIf I help 10 people file for survivor benefits on this line, I could have helped 20 or 30 doing my regular job.
Apples and oranges? DWB cases fall under both categories. Again, why have one workload prioritized over another? .
ReplyDeleteWe have heard nothing but complaints from people trying to file using this dedicated line.
ReplyDeleteIf there is already a lead established then they won’t take the claim. So we are left to either protect them and make them wait to advise them to call the 800# and chance being helped.
So they made it easier to get to the dedicated queue that was launched a year ago. Yay. I don’t like “frontsies” for callers. I feel badly for anyone who lost a loved one, but why should that person get help more quickly than someone else?. Agency has call back option. If it’s great, then no need to prioritize one person over another.
ReplyDelete