Although it does not directly apply to Social Security, the Guardian recently posted an article written by a claims representative from the Department for Work and Pensions, an English government agency tasked with providing welfare and pension policy as well and disability benefits. This agency in Great Britain deals with a lot of the same things Social Security deals with in the United States. This article documents issues with trying to do a phone appointment with the Department for Work and Pensions because the agency has to deal with a lot of calls and doesn’t have the necessary time to complete detailed appointments and applications. The work volume is similar at Social Security. The employee at the Department for Work and Pensions indicates that appointments need to be completed within 23 minutes. The appointments have to do with finding out about an applicant’s disabilities and it can be at times very emotional for the person applying. Emotional or not, claims representatives have so many appointments it may be difficult to sympathize and show the proper amount of care for the people applying for assistance.
All wait times for processing of applications and hearing requests are up at Social Security. It can take well over 15 minutes to get a live person on the phone and appointments can be scheduled well over a month away due to Social Security’s reduced budget and current customer levels.
Applying for disability is not similar to getting a fast food meal at a drive-through window, but disabled workers who are seeking help may end up feeling this way at the end of a call. Social Security is not alone in its struggle with trying to provide customer service when there is a lack of resources and increase in demand. The scary thing is it looks like Social Security is going to have to deal with even less resources in the future.
