Social Security Records ‘Substantial Progress’ As Agency Boosts Efficiency, Technology

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has achieved “substantial progress” in customer service, with improved call times and lower field wait times, the agency said in a July 23 statement.

The SSA handled “nearly 1.3 million calls on the national 800 number last week, or 70 percent more than the same week last fiscal year, while reducing the average speed of answer to six minutes,” the agency said.

“This response time is down from an average of 18 minutes so far this year, and 30 minutes last year, or an 80 percent reduction.”

Beneficiaries also get faster services when visiting field offices. So far this year, wait times in field offices have been reduced to 23 minutes from 30 minutes last year, down by 23 percent, the SSA said.

According to the agency, the implementation of new telephone technology on its national 800 number and in SSA field offices, as well as other measures, contributed to the improvement in customer service.

The SSA said it has eliminated the scheduled downtime of 29 hours per week for the “my Social Security” service, a free account that Americans can use to access various agency services, such as checking application status, managing benefits, or requesting a replacement Social Security card.

As a result of eliminating downtime, 125,000 more customers were able to access their accounts in the first week alone, according to the agency.

Moreover, the SSA has reduced the initial disability claims backlog to 940,000 pending cases, down 25 percent from a “record” of more than 1.2 million cases last year.

Average processing time for initial disability claims is now five days faster than before Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano’s tenure, it said. The Senate confirmed Bisignano as the 18th SSA commissioner in early May.

“Our vision is centered on providing outstanding service that works for everyone we serve—whether they call, walk into a field office, or choose to manage their benefits online,” Bisignano said in the July 23 statement.

“We are transforming the customer experience, investing in technology to build frontline capacity, and using real-time data to monitor performance, across the board. We are delivering higher levels of customer service—and this will continue.”

The SSA had faced criticism over customer service from AARP, an advocacy group for Americans aged 50 and older.

In an April 7 letter to then-SSA acting Commissioner Lee Dudek, AARP said it was receiving “numerous reports” of SSA website outages, high phone hold times, and long waits at field offices.

The group said it was “deeply troubled” by the sudden decline in service standards offered by the federal agency. For instance, callers were finding it difficult to get in touch with customer service due to high traffic, AARP highlighted.

In March, nearly one out of every three callers received a “pre-recorded message that the lines are too busy and are then hung up on by SSA. For those lucky enough to get their call answered, they often wait up to two-and-a-half hours or more for a call-back. This rapid decline in performance is deeply alarming,” the letter said, adding that an issue on this scale did not exist for much of last year.

“We are also hearing increased complaints from our members and others that Social Security’s website is crashing repeatedly. According to reports, SSA’s online portal hasz

Meanwhile, the agency announced it had completed sending more than 3.1 million retroactive payments, worth more than $17 billion, to beneficiaries of the Social Security Fairness Act.

The Act, signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in January, ended two Social Security provisions that reduced or eliminated benefits for millions of Americans.

After President Donald Trump came to power, he made it “very clear he wanted the Social Security Fairness Act to be implemented as quickly as possible,” Dudek said in a March 4 statement.

In its July 23 statement, the agency said it had completed sending payments to all eligible beneficiaries, five months ahead of schedule.