6 days ago
Calls to Social Security may be rerouted to other field offices that have no jurisdiction over person's case
Phone calls to Social Security are being rerouted to other field offices where workers don't have jurisdiction over some claims, according to staffers, as the beleaguered agency struggles to cut down on wait times amid thousands of staff losses and high demand.
Amber Westbrook, a union chapter president and field office employee serving the Chicago region, said the system means that when certain calls come in, she can't 'actually take care of the issue.'
"Our system is very specific to the office that we can do things in," she told NPR, which reported on the phone routing plan. "So I, physically, if another claim is open in another office, I cannot clear their case. It's just kind of the way that they retain that to make sure that things are accurate and complete."
The agency confirmed the phone routing plan, but said, 'All [Social Security Administration] field offices are equipped to handle inquiries and resolve issues for callers, irrespective of where a caller lives or where their case originated.'
Social Security has been in turmoil throughout the Trump administration.
By April, it had lost about 7,000 employees or about 12 percent of its workforce, through resignations, retirements, and firings under the Trump administration's DOGE initiative.
At the same time, retirees flooded the system with calls, waiting an average of 93 minutes for a response during the first five months of the Trump administration.
In July, the agency pulled some workers from its field offices to provide support on the Social Security 1-800 number. The beginning of that month was also the last time the government updated a site showing call wait times, dismaying observers.
'The 1-800 number — they do offer a critical role at the agency, but it's triage, whereas customer service representatives actually clear work for the agency,' Jessica LaPointe, president of Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees, told The Washington Post at the time.
The move created what she called a 'vicious cycle of work not getting cleared, people calling for status on work that's sitting because the claims specialists now are going to have to pick up the slack of the customer service representatives that are redeployed to the tele-service centers.'
Benefit recipients have complained of declining service.
"Whatever cuts they're making or whatever they're doing — I've dealt with Social Security before, and I never had these long wait times," 72-year-old Robert Zeidler previously told Business Insider. "You have to go through some major hoops to get anything done."
The administration has already abandoned some Trump-era initiatives.
In July, it announced it was rolling back a plan to limit telephone-based service for four routine processes like reporting a change in address or getting tax documents, after an outcry that moving to more online-based systems could hinder access for less technologically savvy seniors on Social Security.
That month, Social Security also backed off a plan to ' as a means to pressure them out of the country.
