Recently we have been seeing a lot of proposals about increasing Social Security benefits and an effort to provide more funding for the operations of Social Security, but we are now seeing the Republicans in the U.S. Senate push back in an effort to limit Social Security’s operating budget.
On October 7, 2019, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that the U.S. Senate plans to cut $2.7 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars from the appropriations bill that funds SSA operations. The result would be a funding reduction for Social Security by 2 percent. This move by the Republicans is not a new one, over the last nine years Social Security has seen its operation budget slashed by 11 percent. Congress continues to ask Social Security to face increased workloads, criticism of poor customer service and calls for increased efficiency, but wants the agency to do all of it with less money yet again. This is like a business asking employees to worker harder and faster, but for less money.
The CBPP’s policy analyst, Kathleen Romig, points out that “as workloads and costs have grown – and budget and staffing have shrunk – SSA’s service deliver has worsened.” Below is an explanation Romig provided.
- Most callers to SSA’s national 800 number don’t get their questions resolved; as callers are on hold for longer periods, nearly half hang up before connecting. And a growing number get busy signals.
- Due to understaffing, field office wait times have risen in every region of the country since 2010, with millions of visitors waiting longer than an hour.
- SSA has been forced to close 67 field offices and shorten office hours in the rest, making it harder for taxpayers and beneficiaries to access service.
- The average wait for a disability appeal is 16 months, causing hardship for hundreds of thousands of workers already struggling with a life-changing disability.
- SSA has stopped mailing Social Security statements to most workers as legally required, citing budget constraints.
- Millions of beneficiaries await benefit adjustments due to the agency’s backlog on its behind-the-scenes work, such as awarding benefits to widows when spouses die, issuing back payments, resolving complex claims issues, and adjusting benefits for early retirees and disabled workers with earnings. Some 3.2 million of these actions are pending, causing unnecessary hardship — and often overpayments.
