AARP calls for reassurances from SSA on commitment to customer service
From AARP — By Andy Markowitz —
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced plans this week for a “massive” restructuring of its operations that “will include significant workforce reductions” affecting thousands of jobs.
In a Feb. 28 statement, the agency set a target of cutting its workforce from about 57,000 employees to 50,000, a 12 percent cut.
A message shared with all SSA employees the day before details buyout and early retirement offers for staff and says those who remain could be reassigned to “mission-critical positions” in field offices, teleservice centers and payment processing.
AARP is calling on the agency to clarify what it’s doing to protect services for those who rely on Social Security. More than 68 million Americans receive Social Security and 183 million workers pay into it. Social Security is the primary source of income for most older adults and nearly 1 on 5 rely on Social Security for almost all their income.
“AARP is hearing from thousands of older Americans confused and concerned about their Social Security payments, the status of Social Security field offices, and inexcusably long wait times on the phone to get their questions answered,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s chief advocacy and engagement officer, in a Feb. 28 statement.
“We are urging Social Security to be clear on how they are going to improve customer service, make sure the phones are being answered by fully trained representatives who can accurately answer Americans’ questions,” she said.
Reductions underway
The SSA says it expects to hit the target of 7,000 job cuts largely through retirements, resignations and “voluntary incentive separation payments” but added that there could also be “reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions.”
The agency had already announced it was closing two internal units: the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, which handled discrimination complaints, disability accommodations and other equal employment opportunity issues; and the Office of Transformation, which coordinated agency-wide strategic initiatives and customer-service projects such as modernizing the SSA website. Their employees were placed on administrative leave.
The restructuring will also include reducing the agency’s current 10 regional offices, which oversee Social Security field offices in states in their area, to four.
“These steps prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, reducing non-mission critical work, and potential reassignment of employees to customer service positions,” the agency said Feb. 28. “SSA is committed to ensure this plan has a positive effect on the delivery of Social Security services.”
‘A matter of basic respect’
The Social Security Administration had seen staffing shrink even before the recent announcement. SSA’s workforce had shrunk to a near-50-year low and attrition and hiring freezes were hamstringing efforts to improve customer service, SSA officials told AARP last year.
AARP has led calls for Congress to boost hiring and address service issues such as long hold times on calls to Social Security’s toll-free helpline (800-772-1213) and growing delays in deciding disability claims.
According to SSA performance data, callers to the 800 number waited 30 minutes on average to speak to a representative in January. The average disability application took eight months to process, compared to four months in January 2020.
“It is a matter of basic respect that people should be able to receive timely and correct answers to questions that can irrevocably impact their financial future,” LeaMond said in the AARP statement.
Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, says she worries the staff cuts “will inevitably hurt beneficiaries.”
“The substantial majority of staff at SSA serve the public directly, and the rest of the staff work to support them,” Romig says. “There’s no way that the agency can sustain thousands of staff cuts without hurting the people who rely on Social Security, which is all of us.”
LeaMond noted that Social Security has broad bipartisan support and plays a vital role in Americans’ lives: “Americans earned their Social Security through a lifetime of hard work with the promise that it will be there for them when they retire.”
Andy Markowitz is an AARP senior writer and editor covering Social Security and retirement. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.