{"id":1548913,"date":"2025-07-25T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1548913"},"modified":"2025-07-25T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:55:00","slug":"social-security-records-substantial-progress-as-agency-boosts-efficiency-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/social-security-records-substantial-progress-as-agency-boosts-efficiency-technology\/1548913\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security Records ‘Substantial Progress’ As Agency Boosts Efficiency, Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social Security Records ‘Substantial Progress’ As Agency Boosts Efficiency, Technology<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has achieved \u201csubstantial progress\u201d in customer service, <\/strong>with improved call times and lower field wait times, the agency said in a July 23 statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Social Security Administration office building in Waycross, Ga., on Aug. 28, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu\/The Epoch Times<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The SSA handled \u201cnearly 1.3 million calls on the national 800 number last week, or 70 percent more than the same week last fiscal year, while reducing the average speed of answer to six minutes,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis response time is down from an average of 18 minutes so far this year, and 30 minutes last year, or an 80 percent reduction.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beneficiaries also get faster services when visiting field offices. So far this year, wait times in field offices have been reduced to 23 minutes from 30 minutes last year, down by 23 percent, the SSA said.<\/p>\n

According to the agency, the implementation of new telephone technology on its national 800 number and in SSA field offices, as well as other measures, contributed to the improvement in customer service.<\/p>\n

The SSA said it has eliminated the scheduled downtime of 29 hours per week for the \u201cmy Social Security\u201d service, a free account that Americans can use to access various agency services, such as checking application status, managing benefits, or requesting a replacement Social Security card.<\/p>\n

As a result of eliminating downtime, 125,000 more customers were able to access their accounts in the first week alone, according to the agency.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the SSA has reduced the initial disability claims backlog to 940,000 pending cases, down 25 percent from a \u201crecord\u201d of more than 1.2 million cases last year.<\/p>\n

Average processing time for initial disability claims is now five days faster than before Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano\u2019s tenure, it said. The Senate\u00a0confirmed<\/a> Bisignano as the 18th SSA commissioner in early May.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is centered on providing outstanding service that works for everyone we serve\u2014whether they call, walk into a field office, or choose to manage their benefits online<\/strong>,\u201d Bisignano said in the July 23 statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are transforming the customer experience, investing in technology to build frontline capacity, and using real-time data to monitor performance, across the board. We are delivering higher levels of customer service\u2014and this will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SSA had faced criticism over customer service from AARP, an advocacy group for Americans aged 50 and older.<\/p>\n

In an April 7 letter<\/a> to then-SSA acting Commissioner Lee Dudek, AARP said it was receiving \u201cnumerous reports\u201d of SSA website outages, high phone hold times, and long waits at field offices.<\/p>\n

The group said it was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the sudden decline in service standards offered by the federal agency. For instance, callers were finding it difficult to get in touch with customer service due to high traffic, AARP highlighted.<\/p>\n

In March, nearly one out of every three callers received a \u201cpre-recorded message that the lines are too busy and are then hung up on by SSA. For those lucky enough to get their call answered, they often wait up to two-and-a-half hours or more for a call-back. This rapid decline in performance is deeply alarming,\u201d the letter said, adding that an issue on this scale did not exist for much of last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also hearing increased complaints from our members and others that Social Security\u2019s website is crashing repeatedly. According to reports, SSA\u2019s online portal hasz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the agency announced it had completed sending more than 3.1 million retroactive payments, worth more than $17 billion, to beneficiaries of the Social Security Fairness Act.<\/p>\n

The Act, signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in January, ended two Social Security provisions<\/a> that reduced or eliminated benefits for millions of Americans.<\/p>\n

After President Donald Trump came to power, he made it \u201cvery clear he wanted the Social Security Fairness Act to be implemented as quickly as possible,\u201d Dudek said<\/a> in a March 4 statement.<\/p>\n

In its July 23 statement, the agency said it had completed sending payments to all eligible beneficiaries, five months ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 07\/24\/2025 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/personal-finance\/social-security-records-substantial-progress-agency-boosts-efficiency-technology<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social Security Records ‘Substantial Progress’ As Agency Boosts Efficiency, Technology Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Social Security Administration (SSA)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1548914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}