Fewer people are visiting SSA offices but those who do come are waiting longer for help, according to an IG report, the latest in a series from that office and others on the problems facing that agency as demand for its services increase due to the aging population.
SSA operates about 1,220 field offices in its 10 regions, providing services including processing Social Security number applications and benefit applications, conducting non-medical eligibility reviews to determine accuracy of payments, updating beneficiary records, answering telephone calls, and more.
In a bid to improve efficiency, SSA has been driving more of its service online. Over fiscal 2010-2015, it reduced the number of offices by 1.5 percent and cut field staff by about 5 percent, to just under 28,000. At the same time, the number of in-person visits fell from 45.4 million to 40.7 million.
“Even as the number of visitors to SSA field offices has declined each year since FY 2010, customer wait times have increased in all 10 SSA regions. For all regions, the average wait time increased from 19 minutes in FY 2010 to 26 minutes in FY 2015,” the report said.
Further, more than 11 percent of all visitors to SSA field offices waited longer than an hour for service in FY 2015, compared with about 5 percent in FY 2010–up from 2.3 million to 4.5 million.
