The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) had
previously proposed that they would start reopening the field offices on January
3, 2022. On December 22, 2021, SSA scraped those plans.
In the announcement, SSA does not explain why the field offices remain closed
to the public, but we have to assume they would cite COVID-19 as the continued
culprit, considering the rise of Omicron, which still sounds to me like the
name of a sinister Transformer from my childhood cartoons.
SSA claims that they are open to serve the
public via telephone and through internet service, but as the online comments to SSA’s announcement suggest, phone
service has been basically impossible to utilize due to long hold times and
staff shortages. I would like to say the online commenters are exaggerating as
to their difficulties getting through to SSA, but they are not. We have been experiencing
the same difficulties getting through to SSA since they closed their doors
almost two years ago on March 17, 2020. Likewise, SSA still offers only limited
online services, so not all business that needs to be conducted with SSA can be
done online.
While we were still able to get through SSA’s
phone to some degree in 2020, we have noticed that it is rare to get
through to the local Southern California field offices over the last 6 months. Hold
times regularly exceed 45 minutes and then the phone line appears to “time out”
and disconnect at various intervals, depending on the particular SSA field office
that you call.
I actually got through to SSA Watts on December
23rd. I spoke to a lovely woman (she was truly one of the nicest SSA
employees that I had ever spoken to), but she tried various extensions of
employees working from home to address my client’s claim and could not get any
of the SSA caseworkers to answer their phones. I appreciated her efforts, but I
made no progress on the claim in spite of being on the phone for over 40
minutes with SSA Watts. She had me leave a message on one gentleman’s voicemail
whom she thought “might” be able to look into my client’s claim, but eleven
days later, he has not returned my call.
SSA has the technological advancements of a
company from 1988. They don’t allow the public to email them, so you have to
mail items in by snail mail or fax in materials…..yes, fax. Remember those archaic
fax machines that were mostly purged by companies over the last decade? That is
SSA’s idea of current technological practices. We have also been told that SSA
is months behind in opening mail at certain field offices, which has
undoubtedly resulted in mail being inadvertently misplaced or lost.
As I mentioned in previous posts, SSA’s Office
of Hearings and Operations (“OHO’s”) have adapted to the pandemic and have
offered timely hearings by phone. The OHOs pick up the phone when both claimants
and attorneys call in. Somehow the OHOs have successfully managed to adjust to
the pandemic, but the local field offices have failed to adapt to these unprecedented
challenges. To the public at large, it
appears as if the SSA field offices are making no attempts to improve the dismal
service that they have provided to the public since the pandemic began.
I fully understand that the rise of Omicron is
further delaying the reopening of the SSA field offices (which I do support for
the safety of their employees for January at least), but I do not understand
how 22 months into SSA’s public closure they still have not found a way to
provide reliable phone service or expand the ways to communicate with SSA by
utilizing such commonplace technology as email. I am honestly starting to
wonder if SSA field offices will ever recover from the pandemic as the wheels
seem to have fallen off the cart to such a degree, that I really can’t imagine
the cart functioning again….not in my lifetime at least.
Got a question about SSDI or SSI that you need
us to answer? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with helpful
information on our website that will allow you to successfully navigate the
Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to email me your questions
at megan@westcoastdisability.com or
call me at (800) 459-3017 x 101.
