You may been relieved to hear that the Social Security Trustees Report said there’ll be enough money to pay full retirement benefits for another 19 years — until 2033. But there’s a more imminent Social Security crisis: the Social Security Administration’s horrendous service.
If you’ll be applying for benefits anytime soon, you’ll likely encounter this problem first-hand should you want to go to a Social Security office or call the agency’s 800-number with a question.
And you may have noticed that, in 2011, Social Security stopped mailing statements telling you how much you could expect to receive in benefits. Instead, you were told to go to the Social Security Administration’s website and sign up for something called my Social Security. The agency’s rationale: a $30 million savings that year and $70 million a year thereafter. (It resumed the mailings for people 60 and older in February 2012.)
Focus on the Customers?
In a recent report, Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin said “our top priority is to focus on our customers — the American public” but went on to acknowledge that, in Fiscal Year 2013, the agency’s “overall service suffered” and “service delivery times have increased.”
A combination of budget cuts, the sequester and questionable decisions by the Social Security Administration have led to massive field-office closings, reduced hours at offices that are still open and painfully long hold times for callers.
Reuters columnist Mark Miller, who has done magnificent reporting on the Social Security service cuts, recently noted that the Social Security Administration received less than its budget request in 14 of the last 16 years.
Social Security’s Terrible Timing
And Social Security’s slipping service couldn’t be more ill-timed.
It’s happening precisely as the 78 million boomers are hitting retirement age, making the need for customer service greater than ever. Nearly three-quarters of Social Security field offices see between 50 and 199 visitors a day; that number will only increase as more boomers hit their 60s.
Consider:
- Social Security has closed 64 field offices (and 533 temporary mobile offices) since 2010. That means the agency shuttered one in 20 field offices — the largest five-year decline its 79-year history. There are now 1,245 field offices, down from 1,340 in 2000.
- It has 11,000 fewer workers than three years ago (a 14% drop); there are now 25,240 full-time employees. About a quarter of field offices lost at least 20% of their workers, according to National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA).
- Since 2011, Social Security has reduced the time its field offices are open by the equivalent of one day a week. All its field offices close at noon on Wednesdays.
- People are waiting 30% longer in field offices than in 2012. The average wait time today: 31 ½ minutes, according to NCSSMA. That’s an all-time high. At many offices, the wait time exceeds an hour.
- Call Social Security’s 800-number and you’ll get a busy signal 14% of the time. That’s up markedly from 3% in Fiscal Year 2011.
- If you do manage to get through, the average wait is more than 17 minutes. That’s nearly twice as long as in 2012. A few years ago, the average wait time was 5 minutes.
Pressure to Improve Service
Lately, there’s been growing pressure on Social Security to change its ways.
The Alliance for Retired Americans (formerly the National Council of Senior Citizens) and the advocacy nonprofit Social Security Works have amassed more than 100,000 petition signatures to keep Social Security offices open.
And a Senate Special Committee on Aging staff investigation report in June blasted the agency for its service cuts. Its authors were especially troubled by a “lack of local involvement” in determining whether to close a Social Security office. The committee’s chairman, Senator Bill Nelson (D, Fla.), said “the closure process is neither fair nor transparent and needs to change.”
(forbes)
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