The senator had accused the Trump administration of ‘lying’ about how long people waited to receive help at the SSA.
Social Security Administration (SSA) employees are serving “more Americans at quicker speeds,” the agency said in a Sept. 4 X post, responding to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) concerns about SSA’s customer service.
In a Sept. 3 X post, Warren cited a media report, which said that the SSA’s claims of agents answering calls on its toll-free number in eight minutes on average were misleading.
“The Trump administration is lying about how long people are stuck waiting for help with their Social Security benefits,” Warren said. “I pressed the Social Security Commissioner and got him to agree to an independent investigation. Instead of fudging the numbers, do your job and help people.”
Responding to Warren’s claims, SSA said in its X post, “Fact Check: During Commissioner [Frank] Bisignano’s meeting with Sen. Warren, he presented improved customer service metrics and welcomed an independent review of the data.”
The SSA shared an Aug. 4 letter sent by Bisignano to Warren addressing these concerns.
In the letter, Bisignano said the SSA has already begun to deliver better service in his first two months at the agency.
“Improved use of technology now enables 90 percent of calls handled on the National 800 Number to be served via automated self-service options or convenient callbacks, minimizing caller wait times,” the letter said. “Last year, callers experienced answer times nearly 30 minutes on average. Today, callers are experiencing answer times in the single digits. We also achieved a 0 percent busy rate in a recent week while handling nearly 800,000 calls.”
As for field offices, five times more people now visit these sites via scheduled appointments compared to last year, said the letter. Moreover, they wait an average of just six minutes to be seen by an agent, compared to a wait time of 28 minutes for those without appointments.
“The net result is we have reduced the average wait time in field offices from about 30 minutes last year to just over 20 minutes so far this year, or a nearly 30 percent reduction,” according to the letter.
Bisignano outlined several other customer service improvements under his tenure.
For instance, the agency has ended the 29 hours per week of scheduled downtime of SSA’s online portal “my Social Security” to ensure Americans now have 24/7 access to the site, he wrote.
