When Monday comes there are few places busier than a Social Security field office. Many people show-up after a weekend to inquire about benefits, apply for a new Social Security card or to provide Social Security needed information regarding claims. The wait times for service at a field office can be very long. Trying to get information from Social Security’s national 800 number is just as difficult as many people could wait an hour or more on the phone before they can speak to a live person. In response to the wait times at field offices and on the phone with the national 800 number, Social Security released its objective to rectify these matters with the following information provided in the agency’s fiscal year 2019 budget.
Field Offices
Each day, approximately 170,000 people visit and 250,000 call one of our more than 1,200 field offices nationwide. Our field offices provide assistance for a broad range of services. Some of the more frequent tasks performed by our customer service representatives include processing claims and appeals, issuing replacement Social Security cards, enrolling people in Medicare, and addressing other needs of our field office visitors. Our field office staff also plays a critical role in stewardship responsibilities by re-determining eligibility for SSI benefits and initiating CDRs, in addition to identifying suspected fraud. This Budget supports frontline staff and IT investments to address the millions of visitors and callers at our field offices.
National 800 Number
The National 800 Number handles over 3 million calls each month through a combination of automated self-service options and our customer service representatives. Callers can conduct various business transactions 24 hours a day through our automated services, including requesting benefit verification letters, ordering replacement Medicare cards, and obtaining claim status updates. We finished FY 2017 with an average speed of answer and agent busy rate of 802 seconds (13.3 minutes) and 10 percent, respectively. In FY 2018 and 2019, we expect the average speed of answer to reach 20 minutes (1,200 seconds) and 16 minutes (960 seconds). We expect the agent busy rate to be 15 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
