U.S. Rep. John Larson and other members of Congress have sent a letter to Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul seeking answers about Social Security offices that have remained closed. All Social Security offices have been closed to the public since mid March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Security has been providing services online and through phone service, but the letter issued to Saul seeks answers to why offices have not opened up in some capacity considering that most other businesses across the country have opened to some degree.
These are legitimate questions, but there are factors related to this topic and need to be addressed because Social Security offices are generally overcrowded with customers on a daily basis when open and many of the visitors suffer from impairments that may make them more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus. The fact is there are many Americans who attempt to seek services from Social Security field offices, and for more than three months they have been unable to do so. This is not an easy answer considering cases of COVID-19 now seem to be spiking, but although opening office might not be the answer right now, Social Security does need to figure out how to do a better job of providing services while offices remain closed. This means increased efforts at providing phone services for people who do not have online access. Below is the a portion of the letter Larson and the other members of Congress sent to Saul June 24, 2020, which addresses three significant issues with offices that remain closed.
A continued lack of transparency.
- “The Board urges the Commissioner of Social Security to initiate a data-driven
approach to monitoring service delivery across its service channels.”
- “To the extent its pre-closure decision-making is shared publicly, SSA appears to lack the specificity necessary for program evaluation. Similarly, despite decades of calls for a more rigorous and open process, SSA lacks, or fails to make public, any post-closure evaluation and fails to formally incorporate efforts to mitigate the effects of closures on affected communities.”
Failures to adequately and timely engage with public stakeholders, including local and federal elected officials as well as the public.
- “SSA should also engage the public when evaluating changes to service delivery because transparency and outside input result in better public service by providing greater review of evidence about outcomes of different choices.”
- SSA’s revised 2017 guidance for Service Area Reviews (SARs) still does not address ways to engage local leaders, managers, and community members in the decision-making process…” “…public officials said that they could have helped locate unused public buildings, if they had known of the planned closing.”
Failures to conduct adequate research and analysis to better understand the impacts of closures, especially on the most vulnerable. Examples of gaps include:
- Findings that the closure process did not analyze or address the internet access and usage in the local area, the adoption of alternative delivery methods to affected communities, or other unmet resource needs.
- A call for SSA to “consider existing research and conduct its own analysis of the varied service needs of its constituents” as part of the decision-making process.
- Better assessment of research to understand the disparate impacts of closure on some populations, including those eligible for disability insurance.
