Several times before we have talked about Social Security’s lack of resources related to customer service. Anyone who has had direct contact, or should I say attempted to have contact, with the Social Security Administration knows that actually succeeding in getting something accomplished is a monumental task.
Although long wait times and customer service issues have plagued Social Security for years or even decades it has been tough to quantify the issue, but The Washington Post recently identified some specifics. Citing a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Washington Post highlighted just how bad things have gotten.
- Budget cuts forced SSA to impose a hiring freeze in 2011, which led to decreased phone service by Social Security and the agency has still not overcome this. In 2016 the average caller to Social Security’s 800 number can expect to wait more than 15 minutes on hold and close to 10 percent of all callers will receive a busy signal. Social Security estimated it received 37 million calls in 2015 on its 800 number.
- Attempting to visit your local Social Security field office won’t get you much further as the wait times are also very long. Things became worse beginning in 2010. Within the last six years Social Security has closed 64 field offices across the country and 533 mobile offices. As we have reported previously, there are now more than $1 million people currently waiting for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). In addition to the 37 million calls the 800 number received in 2015 it is estimated that the number of calls made to local Social Security offices reached 28 million. The staff members at these offices not only have to field these calls, but also deal with the millions of people who visit their local Social Security office in person every year. This increased the wait time people have to wait for appointments with Social Security staff where the average wait time was about three weeks.
- This hiring freeze established during an already shaky economy could be seen in the average wait time for disability hearings as it jumped from 360 days in 2011 to 540 days in 2016. It wasn’t just the hiring freeze that caused wait times to increase it was the economy in general. Anyone with knowledge about Social Security can tell you that during tough economic times the request for Social Security benefits is going to increase, meaning the hiring freeze came at the worst possible time.
- Social Security’s infrastructure has been lacking for some time now. Because Social Security was unable to hire more staff necessary, infrastructure identified to enable the agency to be more accurate with payments and reduce the amount of time it actually takes before beneficiaries receive payment never took place. Not only have people had to wait longer for payments, but Social Security has not been able to pursue overpayment issues as quickly as it should have due to the lack of staff. This results in a loss of money to the agency, which further hamstrings things.
Now that we’ve heard all the bad news it would be nice to talk about some good news in relation to the staffing issues Social Security is facing. Fortunately the hiring freeze has been lifted, but the damage has already been done and will take quite some time before things start moving in the opposite direction. Maybe the best news of all is that things can’t get much worse.
