Online SSA

From Disability Scoop:
"Social Security Shift To Online Services Prompts Concern"

A push to expand online services at the Social Security Administration is meeting resistance from a federal union that represents thousands of agency employees and groups that fear the effort will minimize face-to-face help for seniors and people with disabilities. Tucked into an otherwise uncontroversial planning document released by the Woodlawn, Md.-based agency last week were recommendations to increase the use of Internet-based self-service sites and to rely more heavily on video conferencing instead of in-person hearings to determine whether a claimant is eligible for benefits. Social Security officials said the plan is intended to steer the agency toward the type of online service Americans have come to expect from businesses such as banks and airlines. A more up-to-date approach, they said, would help the agency’s 60 million beneficiaries accomplish some tasks without having to set up appointments or wait in lines. How the agency delivers services will be a central issue in the coming years as more baby boomers leave the workforce and begin to collect benefits. In the next 25 years, the number of beneficiaries in the retirement program is expected to increase by more than 70 percent, to about 80 million people. Others, including the American Federation of Government Employees, said applying for disability benefits or deciding when to begin collecting retirement is more complicated than buying an airline ticket. Union leaders are concerned that the push toward online services will lead inevitably to reductions of the agency’s roughly 1,250 field offices across the country. About 28,000 employees work in those offices, and nearly 180,000 people visit them every day. “These are complicated legal decisions. It’s not like depositing a check at the bank,” said Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security Works, a Washington-based coalition that advocates for beneficiaries. “We should be opening new field offices given the number of people who are reaching retirement age.” The Senate Aging Committee issued a scathing report last year on Social Security’s procedures for closing field offices. Congress ultimately approved requirements that make it more difficult for the agency to close an office.

 

 

^ The SSA has been doing this for a while now and it's not that new or surprising. I remember all the issues and problems I had dealing with the SSA either on the phone or at their local office in Fredericksburg, Virginia - they employees down there were dumber than mud and stone-walled us for years. It wasn't until we left Virginia and went to our new local SSA office (an hour and a half a away) that things started to get moving. The new SSA office even called the old SSA office in VA while we were there listening and yelled at them to just push  a button to transfer our case so we could get the help we were being refused for years. A week later we were approved. So there are more problems with Social Security than just having a physical office - it's the many lazy and untrained employees that work around the country. Having internet services isn't a cure-all. The SSA employees need to be re-trained and want to deal with people or they should get a pink slip. ^

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/05/04/social-security-online/20262/