Encounter With Social Security "Computer Doodie" In Minnesota

I missed this one from last summer in The Daily Journal of Fergus Falls, MN, but it is still relevant:

Last Tuesday I finally got up the ambition to go to the Social Security Office.

The doctor advised me to get the process going seeing as I have degenerative disc disease. Yeah right, okay, um. Well this sucks.

And so last Tuesday I went to the brand spankin’ new SSO, new state of the art building, new parking lot.

We were the only vehicle in the parking lot. It was about 2 in the afternoon. I walk in and the first person I meet is a police officer packing a gun. I’m thinking, this is Fergus Falls. Population 12,000.

And why would the SSO need this type of protection? Are people that crazy? Anyway, I look at him, he looks at me and says, “Sign in over there.”

I looked to where he was pointing and it was this black kiosk? Is that what they’re called? A little island computer doodie that asks me three questions: Do you have an appointment? Do you want an appointment? Do you want to talk to someone? I clicked on I “want to talk to someone.”

This little machine on the right spits out a paper that said I was number 65. I looked around the room, wondering where the other 64 were.

I was the only person/customer in there. The officer told me that my number would be called next. I’m not kidding.

I sat down in a chair that was facing the window, bullet-proof glass, I think, that enclosed the social security workers that I figured I’d be talking to. I sat right in their eye view. While they were talking about the happenings over the 4th of July, the food, someone getting drunk and hurting their shoulder, the boy getting sunburned, I looked around.

Nice shop. Important shop. Must be. Armed guard, bullet-proof glass, numerical punch combination lock on the main door to the offices. Whew!

This is damn important.

And while I sat there waiting, those women just kept talking about potato salad and their teen-aged daughters, and did you see what she was wearing?

This important place was nicely air conditioned, so I didn’t mind, although I started thinking about our tax dollars.

And the longer they talked the more unimportant I began to feel. Feeling unimportant in an important place that your tax dollars are supporting…well, I think I understand why they have an armed police officer there.

Some people, customers, or taxpayers might get a little fidgety. Not me. I just sat there in the wonder of it all.

After about 10 minutes, one of the women must have gone back to her own desk.

Then I heard, I am not kidding, my number being called out over an intercom. “Number 65! Number 65!”

You can’t make this stuff up.

Here I am, the only one in the room, a room the size of Pizza Hut, (in fact, Pizza Hut is right across the street), and it takes an intercom, apparently, to get my attention when I have been in her eye sight for the past 10 minutes. I am amused.

I walk up to the bullet-proof glass and here is this young woman speaking into a microphone that looks like something a DJ would use. She asks me how she can help me. I tell her that I need the forms to fill out for Social Security Disability. She tells me that I’ll have to make an appointment. I tell her that I will just fill them out online instead.

I left there thinking, “Wish I had her job.” A receptionist for the Social Security Office. A Federal employee. Sweet.

I have since decided to change my career path.

Senate Letter Regarding Social Security Appropriations For Current Fiscal Year

Click on each thumbnail to view full size.

House Letter Regarding Social Security Appropriations For Current Fiscal Year

Click on each thumbnail to view the letter full size.

A Press Release

The article below was supposedly written by Stephen Martin, the Chillicothe, Ohio Social Security District Manager. It was published in the Chillicothe Gazette.

With the end of the year fast approaching, many people already are making plans for the new year - and beyond. As Americans look to the future, so, too, is Social Security. Recently, the agency released its new strategic plan with the motto, "Social Security Benefits America."

This five-year plan identifies the challenges Social Security faces and the steps needed to meet those challenges head-on. This plan charts the course that will enable us to effectively manage Social Security's core workloads and work toward long-term enhancements of our service to the public.

There are challenges, such as the backlog of disability claims and the increasing population of retirees due to the aging baby boomer population. To address these and other challenges, the plan concentrates on four specific goals:

Eliminate the hearings backlog and prevent its recurrence

Improve the speed and quality of the disability process

Improve retiree and other core services

Preserve the public's trust in Social Security programs.

The plan also notes the two keys to meeting our goals: Social Security's dedicated employees and advances in information technology.

Our commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, has said, "Our work force is one of our greatest strengths. The challenges we face have not shaken our resolve to provide the vital services Americans depend on. But we will need to rigorously explore and wisely employ new technology. To achieve a strong and modern infrastructure we need to invest in technology. That's all part of the plan."

Abraham Lincoln once said, "The best way to predict your future is to create it." That's exactly what we're doing with this plan - creating our future. This strategic plan charts the course we will need to take over the next five years to make our vision a reality. Working together with the president, members of the Congress and our stakeholders, we can provide world-class service for generations to come.

The comments that readers of the paper made in response to this are interesting.

Solving Social Security's Problems The Potemkin Way -- One Case At A Time

In November I posted about how "Problem Solver" at WSPA had helped a woman in the Greenville-Spartanburg, SC area get her Social Security disability benefits. They have done it again! It is just amazing the results this television station can get! Let me drop the scarcasm. I am glad this claimant got the benefits, but it is obvious that Social Security is rushing to get benefits to any Social Security disability claimant featured in a media report. Unfortunately, it is impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to get media attention -- even for fifteen minutes. Taking people out of turn for public relations purposes just makes those who are not featured in the news media wait longer. This is wrong and everyone at Social Security involved in this knows that it is wrong.

Poll

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Happy New Year!

Backlog Report December 2008

Click on each thumbnail to view the processing time report for Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, the part of Social Security that holds hearings on disability claims, obtained by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR).

Compare the state of the national backlog over time:

• January 25, 2007 -- 508 days
• May 25, 2007 -- 523 days
• July 28, 2007 -- 528 days
• August 31, 2007 -- 523 days
• November 30, 2007 -- 500 days
• February 29, 2008 -- 511 days
• May 30, 2008 -- 523 days
• June 27, 2008 -- 529 days
• July 31, 2008 -- 530 days
  
• September 3, 2008 -- 532 days
• November 5, 2008 -- 476 days
  
• December 3, 2008 -- 480 days

Update: I am going to take a guess at the explanation behind that remarkable improvement in the reported backlog between September 3 and November 5. What I think happened was that a few dozen new ALJs came on board during this time period. While the total number of cases backlogged increased, Social Security assumed that the increase in the number of ALJs would improve its output, thus decreasing the wait time.