An SSA spokesperson noted that the agency “experienced many years where we received less than the annual President’s Budget request.” The SSA has authorized about 6,000 hires in fiscal year 2021 for its “front line components,” but having enough warm bodies is only part of the solution. In 2010, the SSA had over 67,000 full-time employees. Staffing has declined precisely as much as the funding because that’s where the money goes.” “The more people you have to take claims and answer questions, the more quickly and accurately it gets done. “It’s a customer service agency, and you need money for that,” says Kathleen Romig, a CBPP senior policy analyst who authored the analysis (and who worked at the SSA for eight years). Since 2010, the SSA’s operating budget - set each year by Congress - has declined by 13 percent and its staff by 12 percent, while the number of Social Security beneficiaries has increased 22 percent, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Is the agency equipped to handle it? Less money, less staff Īs with most things, customer service issues are tied in large part to money. But with roughly 10,000 boomers reaching retirement age every day, the workload for customer service staff will only increase. “We anticipate that the field offices will restore increased in-person service to the public, without an appointment, in early April,” an SSA press officer said in January.)Īccording to the SSA, shortening phone-wait times since 2018 point to an improvement in service. “You have to ask: How good are their computer systems and how good are the connections?” (The 1,200 field offices may reopen this spring. “You have people working remotely,” adds Mary Beth Franklin, a certified financial planner and the author of Maximizing Social Security Retirement Benefits. The pandemic has exacerbated previously existing customer service challenges, including conflicting advice and long wait times, says Joel Eskovitz, director of Social Security and savings at the AARP Public Policy Institute. And AARP routinely hears complaints from members about their difficulties getting help from the agency.ĬOVID-19, which led the SSA to temporarily shutter its 1,200 field offices, isn’t helping matters. Nationally syndicated columnist Tom Margenau, former director of the Social Security Administration’s public information office, wrote on the topic last August, noting that “almost every day I hear from readers who have been misled by an SSA representative.” Another popular money columnist, Liz Weston, also recently reported about older Americans’ frustrations with service from the SSA. As to complaints, the anecdotal evidence is plentiful. The delays were worse in 2018, when a caller would wait an average of 24 minutes to speak with someone. In fiscal year 2011, someone trying to reach Social Security by phone had to wait three minutes to be connected with a representative in fiscal 2020, the average wait was 16 minutes. While there’s no hard data on complaints about SSA service, the SSA does release data on wait times for callers. And then when you finally get ahold of someone, they seemingly just don’t care about helping you and are highly unqualified to answer your questions or to lead you to where you could get answers.” “It’s when you call, you wait on hold forever. “It’s not just the issues themselves,” says Sauer, a former career employee at a Fortune 500 company who worked in international finance. But after 12 conversations with local SSA customer service representatives and two calls to the agency’s national call center, Sauer remained not only puzzled but also frustrated. So Sauer called the Social Security office near his home in Fairfield Township, Ohio, to address the problem. Because he was claiming benefits a year after his full retirement age, he was expecting bigger payments than what the SSA said he would receive. When Jim Sauer read the letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) in October 2021, he was puzzled.
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