The elderly calls for social security in the gastone and they collectively appear to the field offices, such as a lot of anxiety about the future of their benefits.
Some people are concerned about new identity measures, while others are afraid that their benefits will be affected. Completely, this creates a new problem: people who are concerned about delay attract customer support systems in social security management with the flow of calls and appearances in field offices. That everything comes as the agency said she wants to reduce employees 7000 of 57,000 workers.
In February, the number 800 of social security received about 8.6 million calls; By March, nearly 10.5 million calls were received. Finally, the average number of daily calls per month increased by about 50,000 from February to March. The average of March was 483,549, up from 312,533 per year before.
The social security operations worker said in a The agency meeting on March 28 665,000 people visited Field offices in the previous week, which was “important”.
“Why do they come? They are tense,” said the worker, who has been identified as Ian said. He said that visitors come and request approved copies of their documents, which cost $ 100, and can be usually accessible online. He said that myssa, the online portal, was seeing about 2,500 users per week; Now, this is 5500.
“They are afraid that our systems are declining. This is what they tell,” he added.
When the Allie Kelly tried to contact the 1-800 social security number last week, it was received with a voice message telling her that waiting times had exceeded 120 minutes-then she stumbled on it. Less than 40 % of the callers reached an actor in March, according to SSA dataReducing from about 59 % in the previous year.
Social security did not immediately respond to the Business Insider request for comment.
“With a resounding mandate from the American people, President Trump is moving quickly to achieve his promise to make the federal government more efficient,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement. “He promised to protect social security, and every recipient will continue to receive his advantages.”
The flow of calls and visitors comes after the general uncertainty about the program. Social security still provides benefits, but some defenders and beneficiaries raised concerns about new guidelines to verify identity.
Under this guidance, new beneficiaries will have to verify their identities either online or personally. The defenders seemed to be a warning that the new process You can leave behind the elderly without accessing the Internet or the ability to come personally. The new instructions were Ultimately modifiedWith the audit identity now for the start of April 14, applicants for medical care and disability and SSI is exempt from personal requirements.
“The Trump administration’s statements and rash in social security are raising widespread anxiety and tension, especially among the elderly and the disabled,” said Kathleen Romij, Director of Social Security Policy and Disability at the Left Research Center on Budget Priorities and Politics Priorities.
The anxiety chain is feeling outside the phone lines and field offices: At the end of March, Aarp Bi told that non -profit organizations receive about 2000 calls per week about the advantages of social security, with possible disturbances of the coming checks as a “number one” issue to a large extent.
Tercy Jonger, the administrative director of economic security and housing in the old age group, said that she believes that the agency may face an episode of worsening reactions.
“You have higher calls because you created higher calls, then cut the employees and then created more caller. They continue to make the situation worse, and then people feel panic and may call more because they are like, what happens?” Juniger said. “It is this strange effect of making it worse, then reducing it and then making it worse, then reducing services and making people lose confidence in the system; it is really bad.”
The workers feel the ground that he is direct. One of the social security staff told BI that they had to talk to someone on the phone, he was afraid that Elon Musk would check the checks; They ended up having to make sure of them and send their documents that were entitled to.
The worker said that the recipient “had a clear episode.” “Very sweet, very afraid.”
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