That headline may not be shocking to you. Government agencies are not known for having the most outstanding customer service. It brings up reminders of that old phrase, “Hey, it’s good enough for government work.”
Social Security’s “Just good enough for government work” service has been recognized by the Social Security Administration itself. SSA’s own data shows that wait times to talk to a live representative have more than doubled in a year. More SSA data shows that only 66% of calls to local field offices and the SAA’s national telephone line were answered in 2022. That hasn’t changed this year with nearly one-third of calls still not getting answered.
Those who were patient enough to hold waited an average of 32+ minutes in 2022, 19 minutes longer than the previous year. Then when they did get to a live person, the callers say they received incorrect or conflicting information as they’re passed from one customer service representative to another trying to find an answer that each representative should have been trained to provide. The callers also say the SSA lost paperwork submitted by mail, requiring new forms and wasting more time.
Showing up in person isn’t any better. A Washington Post report said in the summer of 2022, six months after the SSA reopened field offices to the public, people waited for hours in the heat in hopes of finally having their claims and concerns addressed.
AARP says the problem goes even deeper than that. The organization found the average amount of time for a Social Security disability claim to be processed has increased to 223 days, which is 96 days longer than in 2019. According to AARP, 10,000 people die every year while waiting for disability approval. The Social Security Administration blames the problem on “historically high employee losses, inconsistent funding, staffing shortages, new hire training, and tech issues.”
Chad Mullen, AARP’s government affairs director, says, “The decline of SSA’s customer support can be more than frustrating for the most vulnerable Americans. For folks who are really depending on Social Security to just get by, to pay the bills, to eat—we’re talking extraordinarily long periods of time to just find out if they’re going to qualify for that benefit.”
The SSA itself acknowledged its inadequate customer support in its fiscal year 2023 operating plan submitted to Congress in February, saying it anticipates further deterioration of service while it undergoes a long-overdue systems overhaul. Congress gave the SSA $785 million for the overhaul which does not include upgrades to customer service.
In its 2024 budget proposal, the SSA claims improving customer service will require $8.7 billion for sufficient staffing, $1.7 billion for IT services, $1.9 billion for program integrity, and $9 billion for Medicare enrollment.
Will there be more excuses in the 2025 budget request?
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