Today’s Washington Post reports that most Social Security and other federal benefits payments will be made by direct deposit by 2013. We applaud this savings in postage and paper, and also the increased security that it represents – thefts from mailboxes will be a thing of the past.

The decision will eliminate about 136 million paper checks sent by the Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board and Office of Personnel Management.

The switch is part of a broader plan to shift away from paper-based payments and transactions. The plans should save taxpayers about $400 million in processing
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The Washington Posts reports on a Congressional hearing checking into customer sService at SSA. It describes a visit to a Social Security offices as “the most inportant encounter most Americans will have with the government.”

The Social Security Administration set a record with more than 45 million people visiting its 1,300 field offices last year. Since January 2009, Field office staff has increased only slightly.

Barbara D. Bovbjerg, managing director of education, workforce and income security issues for the Government Accountability Office, set the stage with her testimony, saying too much work for too few employees results in poor performance.

“With the recent economic downturn, field offices are facing more pressure than ever to meet service delivery needs, and soon baby boomer retirements will stretch SSA field office staff even further,” she said.

The record number of visitors to Social Security offices brought a record amount of work. The number of SSA “claim receipts” rose from about 9 million to about 11 million from 2005 through 2009, according to a GAO analysis. Full article here:

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This one is worth reading through – a statement by the head of the Union representing staff in Social Security Field offices about the new options for filing and appealing online:

“Commissioner Astrue has testified that iClaims are more accurate than claims taken by SSA employees. What he is not telling Congress is that ALL iClaims are reviewed and corrected by SSA employees before payment can be authorized. In addition, the most common error, incorrect month of election, is not considered an error under Commissioner Astrue’s financial literacy concept. Under this philosophy the client is responsible for determining the best time to begin their benefits and the SSA employee shouldn’t interfere in that decision even if the claimant’s choice appears clearly disadvantageous. This philosophy as led to many claimants making uninformed decisions which will result in thousands of dollars in lost benefits. However, since claimants can’t make errors regarding the month they elect benefits, SSA’s Internet statistics look good.

“SSA does not and will not perform audits on the Internet claims at the point they are submitted by the applicant. Instead, the claim is reviewed after an SSA employee makes the necessary corrections. This creates the illusion that the public completed the claims correctly. …

“The Commissioner announced last year that SSA’s iClaims process would allow claimants to file Internet claims without SSA employee review starting this year. SSA employees and AFGE were shocked and appalled that such changes would proceed, due to the vast number of claims that require correction before decisions about entitlement or payment amount are effectuated. The Commissioner has delayed implementation of a non‐reviewed iclaims filing process. This delay should be permanent. …

“While resources are limited and field/TSC [Teleservice Centers] staffing levels have not increased in relation to additional workloads, SSA management continues to engage in unethical behavior in processing work and measuring the amount of work completed. SSA management engages in a variety of questionable practices which are designed to enhance individual office statistical performance. Such practices include processing claims for individuals who are clearly ineligible for benefits, and padding statistics by taking unnecessary actions such as reissuing Medicare cards to every client in the office whether or not they request such cards. Systems tricks are employed by some managers to reflect inaccurate processing times in order to claim better statistical performance.”

Witold Skwierczynski, President, National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) , AFL-CIO

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