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Chapter 5: Customer Responsive, World-Class
Service |
irtually everyone in the nation has been or will become a customer
of SSA. On average, each workday, about 100,000 people visit
one of SSA’s 1,300 field offices, over 240,000 people call its 800
number, and over 43,000 people visit its Internet web-site.
Daily, the Agency processes an average of 20,000 initial claims
for retirement, survivors, disability, and SSI benefits and annually
it ensures that more than 250 million earnings items are correctly
credited to workers’ accounts. Millions of Americans rely
on Social Security. For many people, the Agency and its employees
represent their closest contact with the Federal government.
Since 1935, SSA has provided reliable and courteous customer service.
In fact, in 1999, public satisfaction was at an all time high with
88 percent of customers rating its service as excellent, very good
or good. [1] SSA has been recognized as
a Government-wide leader in management, planning, and service to
the American public. In 1999, in one of the most comprehensive
studies of management performance ever conducted, the Maxwell School
of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University ranked
SSA at the top of 15 Federal Government agencies. [2]
Although the ratings are reflective of SSA’s long-term commitment
to customer-responsive world-class service, this success did not
come without challenges. In an era of rapid technological
advancements and constrained resources, SSA faced many hurdles in
meeting customer demands and expectations. Early on, the Agency
recognized the challenges facing its ability to deliver timely,
high-quality service to the American public. SSA revised service
practices and strategies, automated processes, and made technology
enhancements to meet more demanding customer needs, and move SSA
into the 21st century.
National
Partnership for Reinventing Government
On January 21, 1993 at his inaugural address, President Clinton
pledged to “make our Government a Government for our tomorrows,
not our yesterdays.” On September 7, 1993, Vice President
Gore issued his report of the National Performance Review (NPR),
Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs Less.
This report outlined important principles and mandated specific
initiatives to guide Federal agencies in making service improvements
that the American public would notice, and made 384 Government-wide
and agency-specific recommendations on how operations could be improved.
The NPR later became the National Partnership for Reinventing Government.
The Government-wide effort to implement and track the hundreds of
recommendations made by NPR became known as “REGO I.”
At the same time, with Executive Order (E.O.) 12862, “Setting Customer
Service Standards,” [3] President Clinton called
for a revolution in customer service, mandating that federal agencies
deliver services equal to the best in business. The E.O. established
the principle that government must be customer-driven, and outlined
specific actions that each agency should take. One month after
the release of the NPR report, Shirley Chater was named Commissioner
of Social Security. Under her leadership, the Agency embarked
on a course to achieve significant and noticeable improvements in
service delivery and to raise the bar on customer service.
In recognition of SSA’s efforts, on June 6, 1994, Vice President
Gore visited SSA to personally present the Agency’s first Hammer
Award. Since then, the Agency has been honored with 81 Hammer
Awards.
In December 1994, President Clinton asked Vice President Gore to
conduct a second review of agencies to identify opportunities to
improve Government programs. On March 23, 1995, President
Clinton issued a memorandum to all agencies kicking off “Phase II”
of the Administration’s reinventing government initiative.
In this second phase, or REGO II, the efforts emanating from E.O.
12862 and the NPR initiatives in 1993 were to be continued and integrated
with other restructuring activities. On September 7, 1995,
Vice President Gore released the publication, Common Sense Government:
Works Better & Costs Less. This publication
described the impact of reinvention on the American people and their
Government and presented new recommendations for Government agencies.
In 1997, the Administration wanted to define what it expected to
accomplish during the four years of the second term. In addition
to the initiatives outlined as part of REGO I and REGO II, Vice
President Gore asked 32 federal agencies (including SSA) with a
high degree of interaction with the American public to undertake
an assessment of Agency goals and commitments. These 32 agencies,
called high impact agencies (HIA), employ 1.4 million of the 1.8
million Federal employees and directly affect 90 percent of Americans.
HIA leaders were asked to make commitments to the American
public to achieve some specific, highly visible customer service
improvements by September 2000. The service commitments were
to be significant, concrete, measurable, and meaningful. A
team of Agency executives collaborated over the course of a couple
months and developed a package of service commitments to the public
that was delivered to the NPR in August 1997. Kenneth Apfel
was confirmed as Commissioner the following month and led the Agency
in realizing these service improvements.
While customer service has always been a top priority for SSA, the
impact of the NPR recommendations and the HIA initiatives was the
cornerstone of numerous customer service improvements that SSA made
during the Clinton Administration. SSA’s efforts to improve
customer service, however, began even prior to the NPR.
When the NPR was formed in March 1993, SSA was already actively
involved in several customer service initiatives. Foremost
among these were the development of a Service Delivery Plan and
the solicitation of customer input to validate the service objectives
in SSA’s 1991 Agency Strategic Plan (ASP). When the ASP was
released in September 1991, SSA received two major criticisms from
the General Accounting Office (GAO) and others. The first
was failing to define the process and organizational changes needed
to achieve the service delivery vision described in the ASP.
The second criticism was failing to solicit direct customer input
on the service objectives in the ASP. The report maintained
that these objectives were not based on what customers expected,
but on what SSA hoped could be achieved.
When the NPR report and E.O. 12862 were issued, the Agency knew
there was room for improvement. To comply with NPR’s directive
and address GAO’s criticism of the ASP, in November 1993, SSA conducted
a series of focus group discussions with beneficiaries and the general
public to get direct feedback. SSA conducted 12 focus groups
in six cities to help identify the broad choices and level of services
that customers expect. Two of these groups consisted entirely
of non-English speaking participants.
In December 1993, SSA executives dropped proposed organizational
changes from the Service Delivery Plan, deciding that process change
should precede organizational change. Using feedback from
the customer service focus groups, the plan evolved into a discussion
paper, “Defining World-Class Service at SSA.” SSA used this
paper to initiate a dialogue with stakeholders and employee groups
about the definition of world-class service, the barriers that existed
to providing such service and recommendations for overcoming the
barriers. SSA began by surveying internal and external customers,
posting service standards, establishing a forum for customer complaints
and benchmarking standards against the best in business.
Survey
Front-Line Employees on Barriers
"I am extremely proud
of our employees. SSA has always had world-class people and,
with their help, we are now in the process of ensuring world-class
service for the people of this country."
Commissioner Shirley Chater, 9/2/94 OASIS |
Shortly after the release of NPR’s report, SSA planned a strategy
for gathering employee opinions about the barriers that exist to
achieving world-class service and ideas on how to remove such barriers.
In the spring of 1994, a questionnaire was given to all employees
asking them to rate each of 35 specific characteristics of world-class
service identified by beneficiaries and the general public in focus
groups. The more than 17,500 questionnaires that employees
answered and returned represented a 27 percent response rate.
About 2,500 employees all over the country also participated in
cross-component group discussion sessions conducted in collaboration
with SSA’s unions. The purpose of these sessions was to obtain
more detailed feedback than was possible through the questionnaires.
By providing employees a forum to think in non-traditional ways
with individuals from varied parts of the organization, ideas were
generated that may not have been identified individually.
This effort was important for several reasons. First, it started
the Agency thinking about what world-class service meant and how
to get there. It provided valuable insight about barriers
to world-class service that helped shape subsequent planning efforts.
And finally, it set the stage for future initiatives that, over
time, helped the SSA organization evolve into a culture that emphasized
world-class service and worked to make changes that helped eliminate
barriers to such service.
Survey Customers
Since 1984, SSA had been using focus groups and surveys to “listen”
to customers about service issues. But in working to achieve
the goal of providing customer responsive world-class service to
the American public, SSA realized it could, and in fact needed to,
improve its listening capacity. In 1996, the Agency decided
that expanding the feedback it collected and enhancing the way it
was collected would provide important information—information to
better determine how well customers were being served and ensure
that the Agency was making informed decisions regarding service
to the public.
Also in 1996, the Office of the Inspector General began a study
to catalogue SSA’s efforts to monitor its service to the public
and to identify monitoring gaps. In a customer satisfaction
report, released in October 1996, [4] OIG found
that there was no formal process for coordinating surveys, focus
groups, and other customer feedback mechanisms within SSA.
OIG recommended that SSA take action to better coordinate its data
activities and to make sure each activity had a specific purpose
that integrated into a larger scheme.
So in late 1996, SSA hired a consultant with expertise in market
research and analysis to advise the Agency about highly efficient
and effective data collection techniques. The objective was
to develop a better-coordinated and more comprehensive program based
on “state-of-the-art” thinking about the collection of information.
The consultant told SSA that it was not collecting information from
all major customer groups. The consultant identified
10 major customer groups on which SSA should gather information.
The consultant also said that there were two other segments that
had a critical impact on the Agency’s service delivery, and that
information was also needed from them—major stakeholders (such as
business partners, the Congress, and advocacy groups) and SSA’s
workforce.
An inter-component team of senior staff, SSA’s unions, and management
associations considered the consultant’s recommendations and used
them to develop a new data collection program for the Agency.
In February 1998, Commissioner Apfel approved this new program,
called the Market Measurement Program (MMP).
The MMP includes a variety of data collection activities that, taken
together, give SSA the information it needs to fully understand
its market. SSA’s market is its customers, employees, and
stakeholders. The MMP consists of data collection activities
tailored to each of these segments. The information that is
gathered from all the various data collection activities is then
made available to all employees. SSA has in place an electronic,
central repository of all data collection final reports, called
the Market Measurement Program Clearinghouse, located on its Intranet.
Employees can instantly access the information using an index or
key word search. Easy accessibility to data helps ensure the
Agency considers customer information during Agency planning and
decision-making.
In March 2000, Commissioner Apfel released the report, Gathering
and Using Customer Information to Improve Service to the Public.
The Agency believes the MMP is a step in the right direction and
provides a solid foundation for keeping up-to-date about service
needs, expectations, and satisfaction. SSA is using the data
it collects to help determine the service enhancements needed to
improve customer satisfaction. Improvement initiatives and
new service strategies are discussed and approved as part of the
strategic planning process.
Post Service Standards
E.O. 12862 directed all Federal agencies to “survey customers to
determine the kind and quality of services they want” and to “post
service standards.” However, prior to the release of the E.O.,
SSA had already reached agreement with NPR to post an interim set
of customer service standards that were published in the September
1993 report. [5] SSA agreed to post the
standards while it continued to work on a more comprehensive set
of customer driven service standards.
SSA and OIG had undertaken a series of customer satisfaction surveys
and special studies prior to 1993. The Inspector General’s
report showed that customer satisfaction had fallen four years in
a row due to longer waiting times in offices and increased problems
in reaching someone on the phone. [6] However,
these surveys did not specifically ask customers about “the kind
and quality” of services they wanted. For example, SSA had
no data about how long customers were willing to wait to be seen
by a representative in one of the field offices or how long they
were willing to wait to get through to the 800 number if their first
attempt resulted in a busy signal. Therefore, SSA needed a
survey to glean more specific information about customer expectations.
In March 1994, SSA mailed comment cards to 22,000 customers and
completed 4,000 additional cards by telephone interviews.
The survey information was gathered to help validate the customer
service objectives in the ASP and to respond to E.O. 12862.
This was SSA’s first survey that asked customers directly about
the levels of service they expected. SSA asked customers to
define what good service meant to them for timeliness issues, such
as waiting in field offices, claims processing, earnings postings
and corrections, SSN applications, and 800 number calls. The
results were used to help define specific numeric standards such
as how soon after applying could a customer expect to receive a
new or replacement Social Security card.
After feedback from the Executive Staff and discussions with NPR,
Commissioner Chater made final decisions and the customer service
standards were published in September 1994. The standards
were also widely circulated in a brochure, Putting Customers
First. Known as “Social Security’s Customer Service Pledge,”
these standards are still in use today and posted in all offices.
The customer service standards published in 1994 were not intended
to represent all that SSA was doing, or needed to do, to provide
world-class service. Rather, they were limited to a number
of specific commitments the Agency was making to address some of
the important aspects of service that had been identified in customer,
stakeholder and employee surveys.
Provide a Means to Address Customer Complaints
In March 1996, the National Performance Review released its Federal
Benchmarking Consortium Study Report on Best Practices in Resolving
Customer Complaints. That study examined the complaint
systems of eleven private and public organizations and found that
the systems shared several common characteristics. Among other
things, these organizations made it easy for their customers to
complain, responded to complaints quickly and courteously, resolved
complaints on the first contact whenever possible, and automated
their systems to provide uniformity and a rich source of useful
information.
In 1996, SSA began developing a proposal for an Agency-wide customer
complaint system. The initial research effort concluded that
a best-in-business system would meet the following four goals:
·
Make it easy for customers to complain and for SSA to document
complaints;
·
Collect data in a single, Agency-wide automated system;
·
Support resolution of individual customer concerns; and,
·
Enable the Agency to analyze and use data to make systemic
changes/improvements.
In November 1997, both Commissioner Apfel and the union agreed that
SSA’s system should capture compliments and suggestions, in addition
to complaints, and it should document feedback not only on service
issues but also on topics ranging from policy to programs and laws.
To further define and emulate a best-in-business system, SSA visited
the headquarters of a financial services company, USAA, in San Antonio,
Texas, for a closer look at that firm’s “ECHO” (for Every Contact
Has Opportunity) system. Based on findings from that visit
and other research, the Agency developed a system known as “Talking
and Listening to Customers” or “TLC.”
The TLC pilot began on September 18, 2000, in 75 Social Security
offices, in Headquarters and throughout the field. During
the pilot, SSA planned to conduct a continuous evaluation to determine
whether and how TLC meets the goals that were set. Using surveys,
focus groups and measures built into the system itself, the Agency
would evaluate the TLC pilot for, among other things, cost effectiveness
and employee and customer reaction.
Benchmark Customer Service
Standards Against the Best in Business
E.O. 12862 states, “The standard of quality for services provided
to the public shall be: customer service equal to the best
in business.” At SSA, the term “world-class” service was coined
to define service equal or superior to that provided anywhere in
the comparable public or private sector. Because the Agency
had no process in place to identify and benchmark the best in business,
in February 1994, SSA began developing and implementing a benchmarking
process that could be used by all components.
Also in 1994, representatives of nearly two dozen Federal agencies
met to initiate a cooperative effort to benchmark customer calling
Government-wide. NPR spearheaded the consortium, the first
of many benchmarking consortia studies that NPR would lead.
SSA, the Bureau of Census, and the IRS were asked to lead the study.
The benchmarking teams visited a number of “best in business” private
companies, including American Express, AT&T, GE, the Saturn
Corporation, and USAA to learn how they managed and operated their
800 number call centers. They spoke with company executives,
received advice and demonstrations of telephone and computer systems
hardware and in-house software, reviewed copies of performance reports,
and saw first hand how the best call centers operate.
In February 1995, the consortium issued its final report, Serving
the American Public: Best Practices in Telephone Service.
The information and results from this study were used to secure
Agency-level commitments to improve service and simplify procedures.
SSA parlayed the telephone benchmarking effort and subsequent service
improvements into a real success story.
Process
Change and Technological Enhancements
SSA is faced with a rapid pace in technological change that will
have a profound impact on both its customers’ expectations and its
ability to meet those expectations. The technological infrastructure
will continue to evolve at a brisk pace; it will become faster,
better, and cheaper. While advancing technology offers SSA
a tremendous opportunity to increase access to and improve the accuracy,
timeliness and convenience of its service to the public, it also
presents challenges. SSA began to restructure business processes
to make effective use of new technologies in order to meet future
needs of customers.
Technology will not replace employees or the in-person service for
those customers who require or prefer more personalized service.
Technology is the tool that allows the Agency to provide the same
high level of service to all customers no matter whether they choose
to conduct business with SSA in person, over the telephone, or through
other electronic means.
National
800 Number Network
Before the National 800 Number Network (“800 number”) was implemented
in October 1988, public service in the Social Security Administration
was traditionally delivered in person, face-to-face in its network
of field offices. Increasingly, as the public began to use
the telephone to conduct day-to-day business with private organizations
and Government agencies, SSA began to develop methods to improve
the service to both those who chose to visit an office and those
who chose to use the telephone.
To improve services to both groups, the Agency established 34 local
answering sites in large metropolitan areas to handle general inquiry
telephone calls. This action served as an efficient method
of providing improved overall telephone service for field offices
on non-complex issues. Over time, the name for SSA’s answering
sites changed to teleservice centers (TSC). The initial answering
sites provided local service to approximately 50 percent of the
national population and served as the infrastructure for the national
800 number implementation.
Teleservice became a major vehicle for delivering service to the
public with the introduction of SSA’s national 800 number.
This toll-free system allows one of the nearly 3,900 teleservice
representatives in 36 teleservice centers to answer calls from anywhere
in the country. This was a major undertaking because each
representative in every site needed to have a telephone and computer
workstation that could interface with SSA’s system databases.
In addition, software was developed so that a representative in
any part of the nation could schedule an appointment for a claims
interview for a caller at any field office. Since SSA began
the 800 number, the public has shown an increasing desire to use
the telephone to conduct business with SSA. As a result, the
800 number became the first line of contact for a large percentage
of SSA’s customers.
Caller reaction to SSA’s 800 number was overwhelmingly positive
and from the start, SSA received high marks for the quality of its
800 number service and courtesy of its representatives. However,
SSA found it difficult to maintain sufficient answering resources
to meet the call demand. Access to the service was not up
to public expectations. Customers experienced busy signals
and long waits on hold; however, when they did get through to a
representative, they were pleased with the courtesy and knowledge
of the 800 number service representatives. As a result of
the NPR and the benchmarking consortium, agencies were directed
to provide customer service as good as that provided by the private
sector. In addition, SSA conducted satisfaction surveys with
both the public and its frontline employees.
The results of both the benchmarking study and the customer surveys
provided the impetus for implementing major change in SSA’s public
service. SSA learned that the public wants better access to
the 800 number and wants to have their business completed at the
time of their call. Frontline employees want the authority
to handle more calls to completion. The Agency committed to
improve customer telephone service by January 1996 through increased
staffing, simplified policies and procedures and enhanced technology.
An aggressive plan was put into place to implement the short and
long-term customer service improvements identified through the benchmarking
effort. In addition, an Agency communications plan was put
into effect to inform external and internal customers of its mission
and performance goals.
Public demand for telephone service steadily increased since 800
number implementation. TSC staff alone was not able to handle
the increasing call volumes, and as a result, additional resources
from other Agency components were needed to assist with answering
800 number calls on busy days. SSA also extended the hours
of operation so that the public could reach a live telephone service
representative from 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. on normal work days and
provided automated telephone services to allow the public to conduct
some transactions with SSA at anytime of the day or night.
In September 1994, SSA announced its new customer service standards
based on input from the public. Included in these standards
was a pledge that calls to the 800 number network would be answered
within five minutes of the first try. In 1995, however, more
than 48 percent of the people who called the 800 number got a busy
signal, and only 72 percent of the callers were able to reach an
operator within five minutes of their first try.
Clearly, SSA was a victim of its own success. The public liked
the 800 Number and used it to conduct more of their business with
SSA. From 1992 to 1995, the volume of calls increased from
36 million to 53 million. During this same period, the number
of representatives assigned to the 800 number network declined by
about 400 because of reduced staffing allocations and mandated ceilings
which drastically limited the amount of hiring that could be done.
Clearly, an innovative plan that went beyond merely hiring more
TSRs was needed to improve telephone access. The public demand
for expansion and improvement in SSA’s 800 number compelled the
Agency to examine its organizational structure.
Remissioning
SSA operated three data operations centers (DOC) in Wilkes-Barre,
Pennsylvania, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Salinas, California.
These centers performed primarily data entry work using optical
character recognition scanners and manual keystroke data entry terminals
to process annual wage reports. In May 1993, SSA replaced
the 22-year old data entry equipment used in the operation centers,
which allowed it to consolidate all DOC workloads into the Wilkes-Barre
site by the end of 1995. This meant that a staff of more than
600 people would be left without a mission beyond 1995. SSA
needed to deal with the changes created by automating the annual
wage reporting process.
SSA initiated a dialogue to determine the fate of the Albuquerque
and Salinas DOCs that involved examining their mission, assessing
the staffing and other resource requirements that would be available
to support that mission, and determining the performance requirements
that must be met in the future. Input from all sources, including
employees, the union, local communities and management and planning
staff at SSA was considered.
It was apparent that the greatest Agency need was for more capacity
to answer telephone calls to SSA’s 800 number. For several
years, SSA had successfully used some 1,600 program service center
employees as part-time 800 number representatives to provide service
during peak calling hours. However, these employees were highly
trained in the technical aspects of SSA programs. It was not
clear whether the program service center experience could be replicated
in the DOCs, as the data operations center staff had no programmatic
background and had been recruited for data entry jobs. After
considering the alternatives and weighing the costs, in February
1994, Commissioner Chater announced the decision to “remission”
the Albuquerque and Salinas DOCs to become teleservice centers by
January 1996.
The decision to restructure rather than downsize did not just save
jobs for the DOC employees, it provided a unique opportunity for
SSA, its employees and the union to work together to develop a more
competitive work force. Employees at the DOCs had an opportunity
for more interesting, satisfying jobs. And the communities
of Albuquerque and Salinas would benefit by the retention of two
facilities they had long supported.
The missions, structures and base grade levels of the DOCs and teleservice
centers were vastly different. The major difference being
that the TSC was a public contact organization, while the DOC was
a paper-processing organization whose staff had no direct public
contact experience. When the decision to remission the DOCs
to TSCs was made in February 1994, SSA had a relatively short 22
months in which to work out all of the details for implementing
the decision.
There were very few positions in the DOC that could be transferred
to the TSC. Those that were immediately transferable were
primarily positions dealing with administrative processes or facilities
management. Even these positions had to have some orientation
to the new organizational structure and training on some new duties.
The vast majority of employees, however, would be moving to very
different jobs that would require extensive training and dealing
with the public. There was a great deal of anxiety and concern
among data center employees. They were apprehensive about
whether they had the ability to even do the teleservice representative
job, and effectively deal with the public.
"Our work careers will
change for the rest of our lives."
DOC Employee |
Management met formally with the staff to outline remissioning
plans, provide status on progress, and train employees on the steps
they had to take to move into the new organization. Management
also met informally with the union, small groups of employees, and
with individuals to address more specific needs and concerns.
Commissioner Chater also visited the site to speak directly to DOC
employees. While these communications were originally intended
to benefit the employees, management soon learned that these interactions
often provided valuable information and ideas that they could use
to ease the transition.
Management entered into formal negotiations with AFGE in January
1995. The implementation efforts continued during the negotiation
process since areas of disagreement did not directly affect the
site preparation, training and work assignment activities needed
to move the remissioning effort forward. All issues were resolved
and a settlement was reached allowing SSA to move forward in completing
its implementation plans. The first calls of the Salinas TSC
came through on May 15, 1995.
The DOC remissioning effort went smoothly because of the excellent
cooperation and coordination within SSA and between management and
the unions. This proved to be an excellent management decision
and greatly improved and increased the service that the Agency was
able to provide to customers who preferred to conduct their business
by phone. In addition to increasing the network’s call answering
capacity, the remissioning of these sites provided promotional opportunities
for several hundred employees. Because of the remissioning
effort, SSA operated five teleservice center mega-sites that employ
200-600 representatives each.
"They taught me about
the forms and the situations, but they didn't tell me it would
be so satisfying to help people."
New TSC Representative |
As a direct result of this effort, 800 number accessibility
significantly improved. Busy rates went from 48 percent in
1995 to 7 percent by 1997, after new process improvements were put
into place. In 1997, as part of the HIA initiatives, SSA established
an access rate goal that 95 percent of callers would get through
to the 800 number within five minutes of their first attempt and
that 90 percent of callers would get through on their first attempt.
In FY 1999, the Agency served 95.8 of callers within five minutes.
Callers reached SSA on their first attempt 92.9 percent of the time.
That year, 90 percent of callers rated the courtesy of the Agency’s
teleservice representatives as good, very good, or excellent.
But because of increasing workloads and constrained resources, the
Agency made a decision in early FY 2000 to reduce the five-minute
access target, as reflected in the Agency’s FY 2000 Performance
Plan, from 95 to 92 percent and the first attempt rate from 90 percent
to 86 percent.
Since the 800 number was implemented, SSA has made many changes
and enhancements to improve the level of service provided through
it. One of the many challenges the Agency faces is that the
rate at which calls come into the National 800 Number Network varies
by day, week and month. The busiest day is Monday or the day
following a holiday, with the number of calls decreasing throughout
the week. The first week of the month, the week checks are
issued to most beneficiaries, is the busiest, with the number of
calls decreasing weekly throughout the month. While call volumes
are heavy throughout the year, the network was generally busier
the first three months of the calendar year. The public continued
to follow this calling pattern, despite attempts to encourage them
to call at other times. In an effort to reduce heavy call
volumes at the beginning of the month, in May 1997, SSA implemented
payment cycling of monthly benefits.
Payment Cycling
Historically, recipients of OASDI benefits and SSI payments were
paid in the first few days of each month. Monthly benefits
were paid to all OASDI beneficiaries on the third day of each month,
and to all SSI recipients on the first day of each month.
While these specific payment days were never required by the Social
Security Act, which commits the time for making benefit payments
to the discretion of the Commissioner of Social Security, it was
SSA’s longstanding administrative practice to make payments on these
days.
SSA’s practice of paying 45 million beneficiaries within the first
three days of each month resulted in a large surge in the Agency’s
work during the first week of each month. This surge included
a large number of visitors to field offices and calls to the 800
number to report non-receipt of a check, question the amount paid,
or ask about other payment-related issues. Approximately 9
percent of all calls during check week concerned payment delivery,
compared to 3 percent during the rest of the month. SSA was
concerned that, in the next 25 years, with the prospect of about
75 million beneficiaries all receiving their payments on single
days, there would be a serious deterioration in the Agency’s level
of service to the public.
The release of all OASDI and SSI payments on single days also had
an adverse effect on certain sectors of the economy. Based
on meetings held with representatives of the banking and business
community, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board,
and the U.S. Postal Service, it was clear that the large, once-a-month
OASDI and SSI payment files were creating many problems. These
agencies had to bear the expense of providing sufficient resources
and processing capacity to deal with SSA payments, as they flowed
through the national payment system at the beginning of each month.
This level of resources and processing capacity was not needed throughout
the remainder of the month.
Equally significant was the growing operational risk that was associated
with SSA’s payment pattern. Representatives from several large
financial institutions indicated that when the Social Security direct
deposit payment file became available for processing from the Federal
Reserve Board, they stopped all other business and devoted their
entire operation to ensuring the file was processed quickly and
accurately. Because of the inordinately large number of payments
involved, these institutions had to ensure that nothing would go
wrong as the file passed through the national payment system and
was deposited into individual customer accounts. Any event
that adversely affected the operational capacity of Treasury, the
Federal Reserve Board, or a large financial institution in the one
to four-day window prior to the third of the month could result
in the delay or non-receipt of literally millions of Social Security
benefit payments. In turn, this potentially created a hardship
for SSA beneficiaries.
Prior to implementing payment cycling, SSA conducted ten focus group
meetings at five locations around the country to solicit comments
and obtain reaction from the public to cycling payments throughout
the month. The Agency also conducted a series of separate
meetings with stakeholders, including representatives from the business
community, financial community, other Government agencies, and advocacy
groups. The overwhelming consensus of opinion from the public
and among all stakeholders who participated was that SSA should
implement some form of payment cycling.
In order to improve service to the public, both now and in the future,
SSA spread the payment of OASDI benefits throughout the month, rather
than continuing to make all benefit payments on single days at the
beginning of the month. It established several additional
payment days (i.e., second, third and fourth Wednesdays) for each
month. The payment day, or cycle, on which a beneficiary is
paid generally will not be changed, so that if you are paid on the
second payment day in one month, you will be paid on the second
payment day in each succeeding month as well. This approach,
SSA termed “cycling of payments,” levels the workload peaks associated
with SSA’s past practice of paying all benefits on the same day.
This schedule alleviated to the maximum extent possible the Monday
workload peak experienced by SSA’s 800 number and field offices
when the payment day falls on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday,
which occurs more than half of the time. Leveling the Social
Security payment files through cycling helps prevent operational
risk and resulting hardship.
SSA implemented payment cycling prospectively only for new OASDI
beneficiaries whose claims were filed on or after May 1, 1997.
Payments to current beneficiaries were not cycled, as they were
already in the established pattern of receiving their benefits on
the third of the month. As of August 2000, there were approximately
two million payments being made on each of the three Wednesdays
and the number of payments on each Wednesday was growing at the
rate of approximately 600,000 payments annually. By 2010,
SSA’s Office of the Actuary projects there will be 11 million
payments being made on each of the Wednesday payment days (at that
time there will still be 20 million being paid on the third
of the month). By 2020, when much of the baby boom generation
has retired, the number of beneficiaries being paid at the beginning
of the month and on each of the three Wednesday payment days will
be approximately equal.
The benefits to society of implementing payment cycling are potentially
significant. Cycling will benefit members of the public in
that they will have better access to SSA services, including shorter
waiting times in field offices and when calling the 800 number,
as SSA’s workloads increase in the future. Cycling will benefit
the business and banking communities in that they will be better
able to utilize their resources throughout the month, processing
Social Security payments on a weekly basis. Cycling will also
reduce the risk involved in processing large once-a-month files.
If SSA continued to pay all beneficiaries on single days once a
month, its service to the public could have deteriorated.
The adverse impact that the once-a-month payments had on the business
and financial communities would have continued, as would the growing
operational risk that goes along with processing all benefit payments
at one time. However, since calls and visits associated with
receipt of the monthly benefit payment were distributed throughout
the month, rather than concentrated in a few days, there were shorter
waiting times for SSA customers.
Shorter waiting times and completing business transactions at the
initial point of contact were two areas where customers indicated
that SSA could improve its service. Payment cycling greatly
reduced the waiting times to customers calling the 800 number at
the beginning of the month. An immediate claims taking process
allowed SSA customer to complete transactions at the initial point
of contact.
Immediate Claim Taking (ICT) Units
In
November 1998, SSA began to pilot an “immediate claims” service
option that enabled customers who call the 800 number to file a
claim for retirement or survivors benefits at the time of their
call, without having to schedule an appointment or visit their local
field offices. SSA had always offered immediate claims taking
service for customers who visit or call a field office, when the
offices have the capacity to provide immediate service. With
ICT, customers who prefer to do business with SSA through its national
800 number were given the same level of access to its services.
The ICT option closed an existing service gap and increased customer
choice.
The original scope of the ICT initiative was as follows: To
establish a process so that by September 2000, SSA would be able
to take claims for retirement or survivor benefits immediately over
the phone, provided the caller had the information needed and elected
that option. This definition underscored the fact that ICT
is a service option that customers can voluntarily elect or decline.
The ICT option was not intended to eliminate alternative methods
of filing an RSI claim, but to supplement them.
The ICT initiative supported SSA’s goal of delivering customer-responsive,
world-class service. It also supported the Agency Strategic
Plan and Government Performance and Results Act performance objectives.
As outlined in the ASP, SSA determined the general preferences of
customers through extensive customer survey activities. Two
major themes that emerged through this process were: (1) customer
satisfaction is higher when customers are able to reach SSA by telephone
on their first try, and (2) customers want their business to be
completed in one call or visit. [7]
The project objective was to make the ICT service available to all
SSA customers by September 2000. SSA decided to meet this
commitment through an incremental approach in order to gauge public
demand for the service and to determine the resource implications.
The incremental approach included pilots designed to gather data
for use in determining the public demand, best process, and technology
required to meet the project objective.
The overwhelming success of the ICT pilot supported SSA’s decision
to extend the service to all its customers by the end of September
2000. During the pilot, 87.3 percent of the customers who
had an opportunity to file an immediate claim elected to do so.
After extensive labor/management negotiations, a Memorandum of Understanding
was signed in April 2000 that opened the way for national rollout
of the ICT service.
The ICT service increased customer choice and supported SSA’s goal
of completing transactions at the first point of contact.
After piloting ICT successfully in selected locations, SSA implemented
a phased expansion of the new process. On September 25, 2000,
the Agency completed the final phase of the expansion and began
offering the ICT service nationwide.
El Seguro Social tiene servicio
telefónico gratis para proveerle a usted con una manera
fácil y conveniente de tramitar su asunto de Seguro Social. |
In addition to the ICT units, the automated services platform
has also been expanded and improved, impacting positively on customer
access and satisfaction because it reduces the number of calls that
have to be handled by an agent and increases the number of calls
that can be handled to completion. Over the years, SSA has
continuously updated and added more services through its automated
platform. The use of automation allows SSA to provide customer
service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In 1997, SSA added
automated services in highly populated Spanish-speaking communities.
Callers from these parts of the country can conduct business in
Spanish via automation.
SSA also capitalized on technological advancements to improve service
to 800 number customers. In 1999, SSA implemented “next available
agent” call routing software, which allows for more efficient routing
of calls and use of staff resources. Prior to the implementation
of this software, if no agents were available, the caller received
a busy signal. Now, instead of receiving a busy signal, callers
are routed to the next available agent anywhere in the country.
In addition to the new software, SSA also implemented a Customer
Help and Information Program. This initiative helped the Agency
achieve its payment and service accuracy goals as described in the
Agency Strategic Plan. Experience has demonstrated that using
the computer based help screens increases agent efficiency as well
as response accuracy.
SSA is committed to being a customer-responsive agency. It
continuously strives to find ways to improve service to customers
through enhanced technology and automated processes. SSA is
committed to meeting customer needs and serving its customers both
in the United States and abroad.
Totalization
Agreements
SSA maintains international Social Security agreements with several
foreign countries. These agreements, often called “totalization
agreements,” have two main purposes. First, they eliminate
dual Social Security taxation, the situation that occurs when a
worker from one country works in another country and must pay Social
Security taxes to both countries on the same earnings. Dual
Social Security tax liability is a widespread problem for U.S. multinational
companies and their employees because the U.S. Social Security program
generally covers expatriate workers. This extraterritorial
U.S. coverage frequently results in dual tax liability for the employer
and worker since most countries impose Social Security contributions
on anyone working in their country. The same situation exists
for workers from other countries who are working in the United States
for their foreign employers. Under these agreements, responsibility
for Social Security coverage and taxes is assigned to one country
or the other depending on the employment circumstances. The
aim of the agreements is to maintain the coverage of as many workers
as possible under the system of the country where they are likely
to have the greater attachment, both while working and after retirement.
The second main purpose of the agreements is to help people who
have worked in both the United States and one of the agreement countries,
but who have not worked long enough in one country or the other
to qualify for Social Security benefits. Workers who have
divided their careers between the United States and a foreign country
sometimes fail to qualify for retirement, survivors or disability
benefits from one or both countries, because they didn’t work long
enough or recently enough to meet minimum eligibility requirements.
Under an agreement, credits in both countries can be counted to
meet those minimum requirements. The United States pays about
$12 million in monthly benefits to about 80,000 individuals who
would not have qualified without the agreements. SSA’s agreement
partners were paying similar amounts to individuals who would not
have otherwise qualified.
Prior to 1993, SSA had totalization agreements with 14 countries
(Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the
United Kingdom). In 1993, two new U.S. Social Security agreements
entered into force: the U.S.–Ireland agreement on September
1 and the U.S.–Luxembourg agreement on November 1.
President Clinton transmitted the U.S.–Greece Social Security agreement
to Congress on January 26, 1994. The agreement was signed
on June 22, 1993, by the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy
in Athens, James Williams, and the Greek Minister of Health, Welfare,
and Social Security, Dimitrios Sioufas. All U.S. Social Security
agreements must be sent to Congress for a review period of 60 session
days before they can become effective. The U.S.–Greece agreement,
which entered into force on September 1, 1994, was the 17th
totalization agreement for the United States.
Although the last new agreement was implemented in 1994, SSA continued
to be active in the international agreement arena. From 1993
through 2000, SSA hosted or attended 10 post-implementation meetings
with its agreement partners. The purpose of these meetings
was to assess how well arrangements made at the initial implementation
meeting were working, to discuss issues of mutual concern and, in
general, to reach agreement on the most efficient and practical
methods for exchanging information and processing claims from its
shared clientele. SSA also implemented supplementary agreements,
revising the previously concluded agreements with Austria, Canada,
the United Kingdom and Germany. These supplementary agreements
simplify the administration of the agreements and extend additional
benefit rights under the foreign Social Security systems to U.S.
citizens and residents.
In April 1998, following a State visit to Chile, President Clinton
and former Chilean President Eduardo Frei issued a joint communiqué
committing both countries to explore the mutual benefits of a totalization
agreement. This served as the impetus for the subsequent successful
negotiation of an agreement with Chile, the first such agreement
with a South American country. On February 16, 2000, the U.S.
Ambassador to Chile, John O’Leary, and the Chilean Acting Foreign
Minister, Mariano Fernández, signed the U.S.–Chile Social
Security Agreement and a related administrative arrangement for
implementation of the agreement. The following month on March
13, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Korea Foreign
Minister Lee Joung-binn signed the U.S.–Korean Social Security agreement
in Washington, D.C. Deputy Commissioner of Social Security
William A. Halter and Korean Embassy Economic Minister Hyuck Choi
signed the related administrative arrangement at the same ceremony.
President Clinton transmitted both the U.S.–Chile and U.S.–Korea
agreements to the U.S. Congress for a 60-session-day review period
on May 22, 2000, with implementation of both expected in the first
half of 2001. The signing of these agreements was paramount
in that they marked the beginning of expansion of totalization into
South America and Asia. Until that time, with the exception
of the agreement with Canada, all agreements had been with European
countries.
SSA estimated that, under the 17 agreements in force at the end
of 2000, [8] some 39,000 U.S. workers assigned
abroad were exempt, along with their employers, from $700 750 million
in foreign Social Security taxes. The estimated amount of
U.S. Social Security tax from which foreign workers and companies
are exempt was substantially less, about $165 million a year.
In addition, these same 17 agreements permit nearly 80,000 persons
to receive a total of about $144 million per year in partial U.S. Social
Security benefits for which they would not otherwise qualify.
With the increase in automation both in the United States and world-wide,
SSA delivers many of these payments through electronic funds transfers.
Direct
Deposit of Benefit Payments Domestic and International
Prior to 1972, only a rudimentary form of direct deposit existed,
available only to beneficiaries who filed a “power of attorney”
with financial institutions allowing them to deposit the beneficiary’s
check that was mailed to the institution. In 1972, legislation
eliminating the need for the power of attorney allowed Federal agencies
to draw checks directly to financial institutions. The same
legislation also authorized the issuance of composite checks by
Federal agencies to financial institutions. These changes
streamlined the benefit disbursement process, clearing the way for
the present direct deposit program.
In 1975, the Treasury Department and SSA introduced the direct deposit
program for the payment of benefits. For the first time, an
electronic funds transfer payment, commonly known as direct deposit,
originated by the Treasury Department on SSA’s behalf, could be
sent to an account at a financial institution designated by the
beneficiary. The electronic credit is transmitted through
the automated clearinghouse system, which is a secure computer network
operated mainly by the Federal Reserve System.
While the development of direct deposit by the Government and the
financial community came quickly, there were some challenges to
gaining acceptance by the general public. In 1985, Social
Security direct deposit participation was about 40 percent;
by 1990, it had reached almost 50 percent. In the early
1990s, SSA developed a two-part strategy to increase the growth
of its direct deposit program. The first part involved development
of a public information campaign to inform beneficiaries of the
advantages of direct deposit. The second part involved simplifying
the enrollment process to make it easy for people to sign up.
In developing its strategy, SSA asked check receivers why they chose
a check over direct deposit, and the most common response was a
general preference for a “paper check.” For SSI check receivers,
the most common reason for not using direct deposit was not having
a bank account. There were also general concerns expressed
about the difficulties of opening and maintaining a bank account.
In 1993, to change customer preference for a check, SSA began to
market direct deposit and streamlined the enrollment process.
To address the situation of those who were unable or unwilling to
open a traditional bank account, SSA participated in the development
of an alternative to traditional direct deposit by creating an electronic
account that is low-cost and simple to use.
Beginning in 1993, the foundation of SSA’s public information activities
was the creation of a strategic alliance with the financial community
to promote the use of direct deposit by Social Security beneficiaries.
SSA produced printed promotional material on direct deposit, such
as inserts, available to financial institutions for their customers
who receive Social Security benefits. The partnership worked
well with the financial community committing its own marketing resources
in support of SSA’s efforts. As a result, all parties benefit—SSA
and the financial community and, in particular, their mutual customer,
the beneficiary.
Another measure SSA took was to simplify the enrollment process.
When SSA’s direct deposit service began in 1976, the only way to
sign up was to have the customer and his/her financial institution
complete the paper direct deposit signup form and then bring or
mail the form to SSA. While this worked well, it was an often
slow and cumbersome process for the person wanting direct deposit.
With the advent of SSA’s national toll-free number service, SSA
representatives were trained to determine the direct deposit information
from documents in the customer’s possession and process the direct
deposit over the phone. This was a giant step in simplifying
the enrollment process.
In 1996, SSA totally automated the direct deposit enrollment process
through its QuickStart program. This program allowed a customer
to enroll for direct deposit at a participating financial institution—with
no form to mail or call to make to SSA. Not only was this
a fast and easy way for the customer to sign up for direct deposit,
but it also freed SSA employees to process other work.
On April 26, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Debt Collection
Improvement Act of 1996—Public Law 104-134 (EFT 99). This
law required all Federal payments, except tax refunds, to be issued
electronically by January 2, 1999, thus beginning a new era in direct
deposit. The initial impact of the legislation was evident
in the accelerated growth rates of direct deposit. Prior to
Social Security’s implementation of EFT 99 in August 1996, there
was a net direct deposit growth rate of between 1 2 percent per
year. With the implementation of EFT 99, however, the direct
deposit growth rate increased three-fold.
In December 1996, 63 percent of Social Security payments were being
made by direct deposit. By December 1998, the rate had risen
to 75 percent. However, because of the many complex issues
involved in converting the entire Federal payment structure to electronic
payment, in September 1998, the Department of the Treasury issued
a rule allowing some recipients to be paid by check if electronic
payment would create a hardship.
In January 1999, with the implementation of the EFT 99 final regulation
allowing waivers from the electronic funds transfer mandate, direct
deposit growth had returned to the pre-EFT 99 levels. SSA
interviewers encouraged direct deposit for all new applicants with
bank accounts, unless they alleged to have a hardship in receiving
benefits electronically. However, there were individuals,
particularly in the SSI program, who did not have a relationship
with a financial institution and, therefore, were not able to use
traditional direct deposit. To address the issue of the “unbanked,”
the U.S. Treasury Department developed electronic alternatives to
direct deposit.
Direct deposit payments provide advantages to all parties:
SSA, the financial community and SSA beneficiaries. Direct
deposit gives beneficiaries quicker access to the funds, and, in
the unlikely event a problem arose, it could be corrected much faster.
Beneficiaries no longer had to visit a financial institution to
deposit their checks. Direct deposit also offers cost savings
to Federal agencies. A significant portion of the savings
can be attributed to the fact that the cost of issuing an electronic
payment is only $0.02, compared with $0.43 for a check. Additional
savings come from a reduction in the workload for handling payment-related
problems, including fewer claims of nonreceipt, as well as a reduction
in overpayments caused by double check negotiations. In fact,
the U.S. Treasury reported that an individual paid by direct deposit
is 20 times less likely to have a payment-related problem compared
to individuals paid by check.
There are economic advantages of EFT for beneficiaries as well.
Benefits are credited to accounts at the opening of business on
the scheduled payment date. Beneficiaries can write checks
to pay bills or use automated teller machine cards to obtain money
immediately without the inconvenience of first having to cash a
check. Also, direct deposit avoids check cashing fees and
fees for money orders and similar charges. Many financial
institutions offer free services for customers who use direct deposit.
There are also economic advantages to society. Direct deposit
avoids the costs included in Secret Service investigations and financial
institution liability associated with forged checks. Direct
deposit is also more convenient. Beneficiaries are not required
to be home to receive their payment, nor do they have to be concerned
about their check being delivered during an unexpected absence from
home, such as a medical emergency that requires a hospital stay.
International
Direct Deposit
As mentioned in the previous section, residing in the United States
is not a condition of receiving benefits. As of August 2000,
392,000 Social Security beneficiaries residing outside the United
States receive monthly benefits, totaling $167 million. Social
Security makes payments to beneficiaries in 190 countries.
SSA’s international direct deposit program began in 1987.
Prior to that time, the only way to receive a Social Security payment
overseas was by mail. Foreign mail delivery was a costly and
delay-prone process. SSA was the first Agency to implement
cross-border payments to its beneficiaries. As of August 2000,
209,000 Social Security beneficiaries residing outside the United
States were paid by direct deposit. International direct deposit
arrangements have been established in 37 countries.
SSA’s international direct deposit service was developed when the
increased automation of international banking services among industrialized
countries offered an opportunity to provide better payment services
to foreign-resident beneficiaries. The Federal Reserve Bank
of New York, acting as fiscal agent for SSA, established the financial
agreements for international direct deposit and has worked with
Social Security to implement and maintain the international direct
deposit service. Overall, the percentage of beneficiaries
outside the U.S. being paid by direct deposit to a U.S. or foreign
bank increased from 26 percent in January 1993 to 54 percent in
August 2000.
SSA has long been a proponent of EFT as the preferred method of
payment delivery. The Agency has historically encouraged and
promoted its use both from the perspective of efficiency, as well
as for the convenience and safety of its beneficiaries. SSA
has also sought out ways to provide more convenient services for
its customers through forming partnerships with other agencies,
to provide “one-stop shopping.”
Data Exchange between Agencies
One of the initiatives outlined in Vice President Gore’s NPR was
for agencies to develop customer service across agency lines so
that customers do not needlessly go from one agency to another.
Early on, SSA recognized the benefits of following this principle,
both in terms of customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies.
SSA has established numerous working relationships with other agencies
in the Federal sector. Many of these relationships help SSA
accomplish its mission and help other agencies accomplish theirs.
The character of these relationships ranges from simple data exchange
through program coordination to the actual processing of each other’s
work. Many of these partnerships were formed prior to the
Clinton years, and include examples such as: SSA receiving
reports of self-employment income from the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS); SSA and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) exchanging
data regarding Medicaid eligibility; and SSA taking claims for Black
Lung benefits for the Department of Labor.
SSA partnered with several Federal, State and local agencies to
provide services more transparent to customers and cultivate the
concept of “one-stop shopping.” One partnership that SSA formed
was with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Since 1993, SSA offices in New York had been operating and staffing
an enumeration unit designated to expedite the processing of Social
Security card applications (SS5) from non-immigrant aliens.
Individuals who had just received their I-688B work authorization
documents from INS were directed to SSA offices to complete the
SS5. This enabled new immigrants to receive their Social Security
numbers and begin work more quickly.
Since the passage of welfare reform legislation in 1996, it is important
that SSA records correctly reflect a person’s citizenship status.
In Sacramento, California, SSA partnered with INS to provide enumeration
services to new citizens after their naturalization ceremony.
The opportunity to enumerate a large number of new citizens in one
place has contributed to improved customer service delivery.
Many new citizens expressed their appreciation for the Administration’s
presence and concern, as well as making a cumbersome two-agency
process into one-stop service. The Sacramento enumeration
process exemplifies a responsive government that goes to the people,
instead of requiring the people to come to a Social Security office
to update their records.
SSA also partnered with IRS to help eliminate some inconveniences
of income tax filing. One example is a pilot between IRS and
the SSA office in Albany, which are co-located in a federal building.
More and more taxpayers are visiting the IRS during tax filing season
to use the IRS electronic filing procedure. As a prerequisite
to electronic filing, IRS requires verification of the Social Security
number. To improve customer service, SSA and IRS agreed to
work together in a joint venture to make tax-filing hassle free
and eliminate multiple contacts with SSA. The Agency benefits
from the first point of contact because IRS educates taxpayers that
do not have documentation, which reduces unnecessary walk-in traffic
during the busiest time of the year. While this procedure
is limited in scope and nature, it does promote good customer service
for both agencies by allowing for smooth, efficient processing of
replacement cards during the busy tax-filing season. This
initiative has been piloted successfully for the past two years.
A successful alliance between SSA and Veterans Affairs (VA) streamlined
service to people with disabilities who have served in our Armed
Forces. Since both SSA and VA spend money on making disability
determinations and recertifications, the two agencies worked to
join forces in order to optimize service to common customers.
A joint SSA/VA cooperative workgroup met regularly to discuss potential
initiatives that resulted in improved processes, processing time
savings, and better service. Among these was a joint SSA/VA
website aimed at providing one-stop service to both veterans and
technicians.
In Los Angeles, SSA working with VA and the California State DDS
has significantly improved the quality of disability applications
filed by homeless veterans. The partnership to improve customer
service to this particular community began in 1995 and is ongoing.
The re-engineered process significantly reduced the handling and
mail time for these applications cutting 45 days off the 100-day
average processing time. Veterans receive their first payment
in a much shorter period of time. The three agencies working
together have re-invented how disability claims are processed for
this vulnerable group.
SSA took particular interest in using innovative claims processing
techniques and partnering with agencies to enhance service delivery
to the HIV/AIDS population. From the AIDS Demonstration Project
in the Philadelphia Region to the CORE Center in Chicago, one of
the largest HIV/AIDS treatment centers in the country, SSA has been
diligent in pursuing partnerships throughout the nation to assist
these individuals. In many instances, the Agency trained social
workers in other agencies, to take disability claims for Social
Security. SSA representatives assisted DDS in obtaining medical
evidence. The claim and expedited medical evidence were sent
to a specialized unit in DDS where it received priority handling.
Due to the partnership of SSA, DDS, and workers in medical treatment
facilities, patients received faster decisions and payment.
In addition, expediting the processing of these claims, SSA worked
closely with representatives from other agencies to ensure that
patients were receiving all possible assistance, such as financial
help, substance abuse counseling, and mental health screening.
SSA also formed partnerships nationwide to reach out to parents
of low birth weight infants. Recognizing that low infant birth
weight is often associated with costly, serious health problems
later in life, SSA saw an urgent need to “reinvent” its lengthy
and confusing process for providing benefits to children who face
disabilities and are entitled to SSI. The Agency has worked
with various hospitals nationwide to reach out to parents of low
birth weight infants. As a result of these efforts, children
now receive the support they need during their critical first months
and years of life.
One early effort in partnering was a project called Georgia Common
Access, initiated in reaction to vocal concerns in the Atlanta area
relating to the number of agencies that a poor person, often with
limited education, needed to contact to access services. The
solution was a common application for public assistance benefits.
Based on this challenge, a coalition of state and federal agencies
collaborated to improve service delivery by reducing 64 pages of
applications, representing six programs (including SSA’s Supplemental
Security Income program), to eight pages.
A pilot program began in March 1994 using a paper application.
The pilot was well received. In fact, in June 1994, the initiative
received a Hammer Award from Vice President Gore. After the
paper pilot, an effort was made to automate the Georgia Common Access
application because all partners were incorporating personal computers
into the daily work. Unfortunately, formidable barriers prevented
further implementation of this project, from the impact of the August
1996 welfare reform legislation to lack of funding to develop a
common system among the six agencies. While this particular
project never fully got off the ground, it sparked later partnership
projects that did.
One of the most successful partnerships in this era of automation
was SSA’s efforts to partner with other agencies to access data
online. As there are no legal mandates, participation by State
agencies was completely voluntary. Therefore, each online
access project depended on the trust and good working relationships
established between SSA and State agencies. One example was
in the Dallas Region where SSA employees had online query access
to several State agency databases in four States. This enabled
SSA employees to obtain online birth verifications. It greatly
expedited processing claims for benefits and almost completely replaced
the previous labor-intensive practice of obtaining paper certifications.
Other online access projects allowed SSA employees to query human
services, workers’ compensation, prisoner, child support, wage,
and unemployment records maintained by the responsible State agencies.
This summarizes a few of the many partnerships that SSA formed throughout
the country to improve service to the American public. SSA
will continue to coordinate with other agencies to prevent conflicting
goals, eliminate any redundancy, and find new opportunities for
giving better value and information to the public.
Notices
In 1997, when Vice President Gore asked 32 high
impact agencies to make specific service improvements, SSA committed
to improving the quality and clarity of the notices it sends to
its customers. Specifically, the Agency made a commitment
to send its customers clear, concise notices and to respond immediately
to questions concerning any notices received. These goals
would result in better customer service because notices would be
more concise, easier to understand, and consequently, there would
be fewer customer inquiries about unclear notices.
Producing clear notices had been a priority for SSA for some time.
In 1985, the Agency established notice standards for producing clear
notices. The standards were validated both by the Office of
the Inspector General and repeatedly by customers through focus
group tests. Nevertheless, the length of some notices was
a continuing concern. While the language used in a notice
may be essential and clearly written, a lengthy notice will negatively
affect comprehension.
Under this initiative, SSA tested notice formats with customers
to find out if there is a more concise presentation of information
that will also positively affect comprehension. Based on the
results of customer surveys, the future presentation of notice information
could change. All of the 250 million notices SSA sends annually
had been or will be improved in some way by this project, either
by improved language, faster delivery and/or increased accuracy
of information.
SSA estimated that approximately 50 million beneficiaries and recipients
will benefit from the notice improvement effort. Notices will
be more responsive to their needs due to the Agency’s ongoing efforts
to get public reaction and suggestions for improvements. Because
of increased automation, the notices will also be more accurate.
In November 1998, SSA implemented the Online Notice Retrieval System,
which is a “document management” system that allows employees to
quickly and efficiently answer questions from customers about notices
they receive. Before this, employees did not have access to
notices that customers received. Now, employees can bring
up copies of the notices on their computer screen electronically
within a few seconds, and respond immediately to questions about
the notice. The electronic archival and retrieval of notices
help SSA employees serve customers more quickly when they call with
questions related to notices.
As part of this initiative, SSA streamlined its notice process by
standardizing, consolidating and centralizing the control over notice
language. The Agency eliminated the duplicate notice systems
that existed and made notice changes more quickly and efficiently,
with fewer resources. SSA also has eliminated the multipurpose
form notices used in some applications. As a result, the number
of inquiries to the field offices and 800 number about overpayment
and other types of notices had dropped.
SSA continues with numerous initiatives to improve the content,
format and clarity of its notices. One initiative involves
notices sent to its Spanish-speaking customers. In January
1997, the Office of the Inspector General conducted an extensive
literature search and personal and telephone interview with 46 individuals
at 39 agencies. The purpose was to provide SSA with information
concerning the appropriate reading level of Spanish-speaking clients
to ensure that SSA notices are understandable. [9]
Respondents indicated that SSA’s reading level established
for English language material was appropriate for materials sent
to Spanish-speaking individuals. The Spanish notices from
this initiative helped the largest non-English speaking group of
beneficiaries by eliminating the need for them to contact the Agency
about English notices. SSA intends to measure the success
of this initiative by using the Market Measurement Program, as well
as additional performance measures.
Responsive Service To Customers
Social Security is an Agency focused on increasing customer satisfaction
by improving the level of service provided to its customers.
It has endeavored to serve the American public and is able to respond
appropriately to the needs of individuals, groups and the nation
as a whole. During the Clinton years, SSA exhibited this commitment
by providing responsive service to customers in various circumstances.
Diverse Customers
The United States is becoming increasingly multi-cultural.
In the year 2000, African-Americans comprised about 12 percent of
the general population; Hispanics, approximately 11 percent; and
Asian Americans, about 4 percent. [10] Within
the next half-century, these percentages will grow, in some ways
quite dramatically. African-Americans will comprise 13 percent
of the population; Hispanics, more than 20 percent; and Asian Americans,
more than 10 percent. Much of this increase in minority populations
will result from immigration. The Census Bureau estimates
that the U.S. population will reach 383 million by 2050. At
that point, more than one-third of the population, or 139 million
people, will be post-1970 immigrants and their descendants. [11]
The vast majority of these immigrants will be from Latin
America and Asian nations. This population growth raised several
issues for SSA, and particularly for SSA communicators.
In September 1998, the Advisory Board on the President’s Initiative
on Race concluded its work and presented a report containing its
final recommendations to President Clinton. The President’s Initiative
for One America is devoted to helping bridge the racial and ethnic
divides in our society.
Although the President’s Initiative for One America was not instituted
until 1998, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has a long
history of activities supporting the Initiative that precedes 1998.
SSA’s customers are a diverse group, and the Agency realizes the
importance of its workforce being a reflection of the people it
serves.
Upon his appointment, Commissioner Apfel affirmed his commitment
to establishing a diverse work force. In 1997, SSA published
its first strategic plan as an Independent Agency. The importance
of workforce planning was reflected in the plan. One of the
objectives listed in the strategic plan was “to create a workforce
to serve SSA’s diverse customers in the 21st century.”
[12] To accomplish this, SSA developed
both a short-term and a long-term recruitment strategy to hire employees
from historically underrepresented groups. A further discussion
of SSA’s recruitment efforts is found in the chapter on Workforce
Investments.
In March 2000, SSA hosted an American Indian and Alaska Native Service
Delivery Conference in Denver, Colorado to explore how to better
serve the American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The
conference served as a catalyst shifting attention and focus to
this group, and representatives from over 120 tribes attended. Conference
programs and activities focused on ways to improve outreach and
service delivery to American Indians and Alaska Natives and increase
their representation in the Agency’s workforce.
As a result of the service delivery conference, the Agency established
an American Indian and Alaska Native Executive Steering Committee
to develop and implement projects that would achieve the goals of
increasing the workforce representation of American Indians and
Alaska Natives and improving services to their communities.
Under the Committee’s leadership, exciting initiatives and projects
are already in various stages of development:
- SSA established a Cooperative Education Program for students
of Tribal Colleges and Universities. Through this program,
SSA will hire 25-50 students each year for service delivery positions.
- SSA entered into an inter-agency agreement with the Indian Health
Service to conduct an Outreach Demonstration Project on reservations.
Through this partnership, the Agency will work with the National
Indian Council on Aging, a highly respected group that represents
American Indian and Alaska Native elders, to inform and educate
tribal people, on their reservations, about Social Security programs
and benefits.
- SSA established a formal relationship with the National Indian
Council on Aging. Since part of their mission is to educate
Indian people about the availability of federal programs, we expect
our partnership to be fruitful. The Agency will be able
to access the Council’s extensive database of the public information
needs and demographics of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
- SSA employees increased their level of activity with tribes.
They attended tribal meetings and offered in-service training
about social security programs and procedures. SSA is also
exploring technology solutions to enhance service delivery to
the remote locations of many tribes. The Agency is committed
to serving all of its customers.
SSA was also developing activities to ensure compliance with the
provisions of Executive Order 13125, signed by President Clinton
on June 7, 1999. The E.O. was designed to improve the quality
of life for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. SSA established
a plan to meet the objectives of the E.O., and to improve service
to its non-English speaking customers.
Non-English Speaking/Limited
English Proficient (NES/LEP)
In
May 1992, the Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources issued a report
on “SSA’s Capability to Accommodate the Needs of the NES Public.”
This report concluded that a large gap exists between the public’s
need for bilingual services and SSA’s capability to meet that need
with its own resources. It identified the five largest language
groups requiring field office service as Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian,
Chinese and Korean.
In July 1993, the Deputy Commissioner for Operations issued an advisory
report, “Improving Service to the NES Public. This report
cited the growing concern and interest of advocacy groups and the
Congress in improving access for the NES public.” It acknowledged
that SSA had already taken many steps to improve service and stated
that given the predicted NES population growth, more needed to be
done. This report’s recommendations focused both on improving
service delivery and on providing relief to offices and employees
involved in direct NES service delivery.
In 1995, Commissioner Shirley Chater asked for an Agency-wide position
on providing service to the limited English proficient (LEP).
SSA adopted the vision statement and guiding principles that “SSA’s
policy is to ensure that individuals have access to SSA’s services
regardless of their ability to communicate in English.” The
Customer Service Pledge and the General Business Plan established
the standards for service to all the Agency’s customers. The
policy principles, signed by Commissioner Chater on September 20,
1995, did not establish a different standard, nor a special set
of mandates for the Agency to serve LEP customers to the detriment
of the Agency’s responsibilities toward the general population.
Rather, these principles articulated SSA’s policies toward the LEP
population within the overall customer service standards the Agency
established for providing world-class service to its customers.
SSA’s policy is to ensure that individuals have access to SSA’s
services regardless of their ability to communicate in English.
The Agency recognizes that not all of its customers are alike --they
are from diverse cultural backgrounds and many do not speak English.
NES/LEP customers generally need help in communicating with SSA
(e.g., interpreter services for interviews and assistance in translating
documents).
In FY1999, approximately 8 percent or 1,623,000 customers preferred
to have their interviews conducted in a language other than English.
Recognizing that there will be continued constraints on staffing
and funding, SSA is committed to “working smarter” with available
resources to develop better ways of serving all its customers.
It is in SSA’s best interest to be proactive in providing for the
special communication needs of its NES customers. SSA benefits
from more efficiently providing services at the initial point of
contact, thereby minimizing follow-up contacts, and by obtaining
accurate and complete information that enhances the integrity of
its programs. NES customers benefit from having full access
to SSA’s programs.
SSA determined that the most effective method of providing quality
service to its NES customers is through bilingual field office and
teleservice employees. Hiring bilingual staff is a major consideration
for every hiring decision in FOs and TSCs. Hiring initiatives
have focused on achieving the right mix of employee language skills
to serve its NES/LEP customers. Since 1996, 32 percent of
newly hired field office and teleservice employees have been bilingual.
Seventy-nine percent of the bilingual hires speak Spanish.
Further, SSA has hired bilingual employees giving the Agency the
ability to communicate in over 90 additional languages including
French, Polish, German, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Korean, Tagalog,
Vietnamese, Arabic, Portuguese, and Native American languages.
In the past, SSA sometimes placed the responsibility upon the LEP
client to bring in an interpreter. This reliance on outside
interpreters resulted in clients’ use of family members who were
not themselves skilled in English, were minors, or in use of middlemen
that sometimes affected the integrity of SSA’s programs. In
1997, SSA revised its policy on providing service to its LEP customers
by placing the burden for providing interpreter services on the
Agency.
Social Security’s policy strikes a balance between accommodating
the customer’s wishes and the Agency’s need to promote program integrity.
The Agency recognizes the value of reliable, qualified interpreters
to facilitate its processes. It allows for the use of a qualified
interpreter of the customer’s own choosing. However, SSA will
not use minors as interpreters in dealing with complex or sensitive
matters unless it is clear that they also meet the requirements
of a qualified interpreter. If the NES customer does not have
a qualified interpreter and bilingual staff is not available, Social
Security will provide one. The Agency’s intent is to ensure
that the claimant and Agency’s interests are well served.
The Agency recognizes that the services of a qualified interpreter
facilitate its processes and deter fraud. Since 1995, SSA
has provided funding for the use of qualified interpreters in
the following amounts:
1996
$150,000
1997
$190,945
1998
$211,396
1999
$333,238
Non-English speaking customers will have access to SSA’s services
by phone, fax, mail, and other forms of electronic media.
SSA’s efforts to foster communications with all of its clients,
including its non-English speaking clients, helps to increase their
satisfaction and level of confidence with SSA.
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence plagues the lives of millions of Americans.
It is a crime that affects people from all walks of life.
Some victims of domestic violence turn to SSA for help by asking
for a new Social Security number (SSN) as a way of escaping their
abuser because domestic abusers sometimes misuse their victim’s
SSNs to locate those in hiding. A determined abuser, using
private detectives or the Internet, can find the whereabouts of
anyone who doesn’t take precautions. This means that an individual
seeking to escape domestic violence may need to change virtually
his or her entire identity: name, home, job, and Social Security
number.
Prior to November 1998, before it would assign a new SSN, Social
Security required victims of domestic violence to provide proof
that their abusers had misused their numbers. Feedback from
SSA field personnel and advocates working with victims indicated
that providing such proof was often difficult, if not impossible.
For those who could not provide proof, only those individuals who
were determined to be “severely abused” or in danger of losing their
lives could be assigned new numbers.
In partnership with the Department of Justice and victim advocates,
SSA reexamined its role in the fight against domestic violence.
The Agency resolved to find new ways of empowering victims through
the policies and resources under its jurisdiction.
On November 4, 1998, Commissioner Kenneth Apfel joined Vice President
Al Gore in announcing major procedural changes to make it easier
for victims of domestic violence to secure new SSNs. Under
those changes, SSA now assigns new Social Security numbers based
on a written affirmation of the domestic abuse, supported by third-party
evidence from sources such as police, medical professionals, or
locally-recognized battered victims’ shelters. The prior requirement
to provide proof that the abuser had misused the SSN was eliminated.
Social Security also helps victims by assisting them in obtaining
the information needed to receive a new SSN, including securing
the necessary affidavit of abuse. SSA employees work closely
with local shelters that provide services to victims of domestic
violence, and that can often provide the supporting documentation
needed. The Agency also works with police, the courts, treating
physicians and psychologists, medical facilities, local battered
victims’ shelters, churches, and other community support organizations
to obtain the supporting documentation.
To ensure that requests for new SSNs are processed expeditiously
and in a uniform, consistent manner, all such requests are processed
in one central location at headquarters. During the first
12 months of processing SSN requests under the change in policy,
SSA assigned 369 new SSNs. This was more than 3.5 times the
number assigned before the policy change. Requests approved for
new SSNs for harassment/abuse victims increased from approximately
eight requests per month under the prior policy to more than 30
per month under the new policy.
Social Security has also taken other steps to improve service to
these victims. Its website includes information about obtaining
new SSNs and its field office employees also provide important referral
information and advice on further steps victims can take to protect
themselves.
As SSA continues to monitor its experience in the area of domestic
violence, it will explore ways of increasing public knowledge about
how a new SSN can help break the cycle of violence. The Agency’s
message must continue to reflect the reality that a new Social Security
number alone cannot offer complete protection to victims.
Recognizing that SSA has a critical role in the battle against domestic
violence, the Agency has continued to work with community partners
in ongoing discussions in this critical area.
Tragedies
and Natural Disasters
Social Security reaches out to support victims of tragedies and
natural disasters. On August 24, 1992, just prior to President
Clinton’s election, Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, where
367,000 people collect Social Security and SSI benefits. In
response to concerns from beneficiaries and recipients, Agency workers
took necessary steps to ensure that senior citizens would know how
to get their checks despite the devastation.
Local offices used television, radio and loudspeaker trucks touring
the area with messages in English, Spanish, and Creole. The
Agency also hired an airplane to tow a banner with SSA’s toll-free
800 telephone number over the hard-hit Homestead area. SSA
was instrumental in calming the fears of many of its beneficiaries.
Social Security uses special procedures to assist victims of disaster
in filing for benefits. This involves sending an Agency representative
to the site of the disaster to take claims, working with relief
agencies to help identify victims, using a passenger manifest or
newspaper account listing the identified victims as evidence of
death, and estimating the most recent earnings to compute the highest
possible benefit.
On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m. CST, our nation experienced an unprecedented
tragedy in the terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Office Building in Oklahoma City. Sixteen SSA employees were
among the 168 people who lost their lives. SSA employees across
the nation joined together to provide support for families who lost
loved ones, as well as support for the American public as a whole.
World-class service went world-wide following the tragedy of TWA
Flight 800, when it exploded in the sky off Long Island on July
17, 1996, killing all 230 people aboard. At 11:30 a.m. the
following day, a message came from Italy across the Internet to
Social Security headquarters in Baltimore. It said simply,
“I lost my wife in the TWA flight 800. She was part of the
working crew. What do I need to do to settle the matter with
Social Security? Please give me all useful information.”
The receiving office recognized the urgency of the message and took
it to the office responsible for handling international claims.
By 4 p.m., using the Internet, Social Security sent the names, addresses
and phone numbers of persons to contact at the U.S. Embassy in Rome
or the American Consulate General in Naples. Both offices
were alerted that the widower might call. One week later,
the widower caught a train to the Consulate in Naples and applied
for the $255 lump sum death benefit. He returned later to
file claims for survivor’s benefits for the couple’s two children.
On May 5, 1999, the first 450 resettled
refugees from Kosovo landed at McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey.
SSA joined forces with other federal agencies to assist the refugees.
Employees took Social Security number applications and assessed
them for potential SSI benefits. The first and youngest refugee
to get a Social Security number was baby Amerikan Karaliju, born
just days after his parents arrived in the U.S.
As illustrated above, SSA has a history of providing world-class
service in a time of tragedy, crisis, or turmoil. One of the
greatest challenges to its service reputation occurred in 1995 when
there was a nationwide shutdown of Federal Government agencies.
Government Shutdown
"I will personally
not rest until all 66,000 SSA employees are back where they
both deserve and wish to be - at their duty stations doing what
they have always done in an exemplary manner - serving the American
public with both efficiency and compassion."
Commissioner Shirley S. Chater
November 17, 1995 |
In the fall of 1995 as budget talks between President Clinton and
members of Congress intensified, Federal agencies were instructed
to prepare for a possible lapse in appropriations and a Government-wide
shutdown. Between November 1995 and January 1996, the Federal
Government shut down not once, but twice, and employees were furloughed
for an extended period of time. This had a severe impact on
many Government agencies, particularly those in direct service to
the American public.
When the possibility of a lapse in appropriations first surfaced
in 1995, SSA began fine-tuning its contingency plan to ensure the
continuity of operations in the event of an employee furlough and
Government-wide shutdown. When the possibility of a furlough
materialized, SSA made a conscious effort to keep all employees
fully informed of the status of funding discussions and potential
outcomes if agreement could not be reached. On September 14,
1995, Commissioner Chater sent a letter to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) providing the staffing decisions to be implemented
in its contingency plan. The plan provided for sufficient
staff presence to ensure the continued issuance of Social Security
and SSI payments to those already entitled to receive them.
This included the retention of approximately three employees per
SSA’s 1,300 field offices and an additional 160 employees in other
direct service positions. A total of 4,780 employees would
be needed and 61,415 employees would be placed in furlough status.
Under this plan, the national 800 number would cease operation and
callers would hear a recorded message advising them of the situation.
Applications for Social Security numbers would not be processed,
nor would applications for Social Security benefits. SSA
would not process postentitlement actions, except for critical matters
that affected payments. The entire appeals process would shut
down and the State Disability Determination Services (DDS) would
be drastically curtailed. The plan also called for a reassessment
to take place when the funding lapse began to ensure the provision
of basic services to beneficiaries and recipients.
On November 14, 1995, SSA was advised to begin a shutdown of operations
beginning at 10 a.m. The Agency’s contingency plan was implemented.
Employees were instructed to pay close attention to the media to
determine when the impasse was resolved and when to return to work.
SSA furloughed 61,415 employees and retained 4,780. The majority
of the employees retained were in direct service positions to ensure
the continuance of benefits to currently enrolled Social Security,
SSI and Black Lung beneficiaries. Because appropriations were
available to fund the program costs of paying benefits, this implied
authority to incur obligations for the costs necessary to administer
those benefits. Other functions considered essential and permitted
under applicable statutes (including the Anti-Deficiency Act) during
a lapse in appropriations related to areas of health and safety,
oversight and coordination of all human resources and financial
functions related to the furlough.
SSA’s contingency plan was altered shortly after the shutdown began
when the Commissioner approved the recall of an additional 130 Office
of Hearings and Appeals employees to handle time-sensitive mail
in the hearing offices. Without the assistance of these employees,
this claims-related mail would have been returned to the sender,
further delaying claims processing.
While there was a view by some that Government wasn’t important,
and that Americans barely noticed the impact that Government has
in their lives, it became clear immediately that this was not the
case. The American people who could not visit the national
parks or museums, who could not update their passports, and who
could not conduct business with Social Security are just a few examples
of Americans who certainly felt the impact of the Government shutdown.
Social Security serves millions of customers each year, and each
day of the shutdown meant that thousands of Americans could not
visit its offices to conduct their business.
Social Security and its customers immediately felt the impact of
the shutdown. From the very first day, the Agency received
telephone calls from customers needing a Social Security card to
work or who needed to change the address where their check should
be mailed for the following month. It was evident to Agency
executives after a couple of days that the shutdown was not acceptable,
and that it was affecting some of its most vulnerable people, namely
its elderly, disabled, and low-income recipients. It became
very clear that it was important that SSA reopen its offices to
conduct business, even during the shutdown. There was tremendous
concern internally, as well as within the White House that SSA not
providing service would cause harm to too many Americans.
Considering the impact of this brief shutdown, it was obvious that
an appropriations lapse of one to two weeks or longer would cripple
SSA’s ongoing ability to properly administer the programs for which
it is responsible and could seriously impair its capacity to provide
acceptable public service. Both the ability to distribute
accurate payments to beneficiaries and to process pending claims
and appeals would be severely impacted and the mission of the organization
seriously compromised. To guard against such an occurrence,
SSA’s contingency plan provided for a range of appropriate adjustments
that could be made in the event of a prolonged shutdown.
In a letter dated November 16, 1995, [13] Commissioner
Chater advised OMB that the Agency would have to implement Phase
II of its contingency staffing plan on Monday, November 20, 1995,
should the furlough continue. President Clinton held a press
conference that afternoon and announced to the public that this
shutdown was unacceptable, that Americans needed to be able to conduct
business, and that SSA was recalling approximately 49,715 more employees
in direct service positions back to work. This involved recalling
sufficient staff to effectively administer its programs, including
processing new claims for Social Security benefits. This put
field offices, the toll-free 800 number service and State DDS facilities
back in business. Although SSA would take and process new
applications for benefits and resume processing appeals, it would
not process applications for SSNs, perform personal earnings and
benefits estimates or conduct annual wage reporting activities.
A total of 54,495 staff would be retained.
There was a great deal of discussion and some dissention internally
over which employees should return to work, and that if SSA was
going to recall 54,000 employees, why not recall all 66,000.
The concern was that by recalling all but 12,000 employees, what
message were you sending to them? SSA is an employer that
values its employees and believes that every employee is essential.
It requires each employee to perform his or her individual job to
make the organization work together as a whole. The Commissioner
assured employees that they were all essential to the important
mission of SSA. However, under the law governing a lapse in
funding, the majority of employees not in direct service positions
would have to be furloughed. Commissioner Chater expressed
her strong commitment to continue working hard to get all 66,000
employees back on the job.
The four-day furlough severely impacted SSA’s ability to provide
the quality service that the American people expect. The following
activities are examples of basic services that were curtailed or
denied during the November shutdown:
·
About 112,000 claims for retirement and disability benefits
were not taken (about 28,000 per day);
·
About 212,000 applications for Social Security numbers were
not taken (about 53,000 per day);
·
About 800,000 callers were denied service on SSA’s 800 number
(about 200,000 per day); and,
·
About 5,000 previously scheduled hearings were canceled and
decisions related to another 7,000 hearings that had already taken
place were not written.
The second shutdown was the longest in history and presented new
challenges to Agency management. When the threat of a second
shutdown surfaced, SSA determined that the trust funds and benefit
programs could not tolerate another interruption of claims-taking
activities. Based on the experience during the November lapse
in appropriations and the loss of four full days of production time,
any further interruption in service would have a devastating long-term
impact on SSA’s ability to process Social Security, SSI and Black
Lung claims. The Agency was still attempting to recover from
the effects of the November furlough. Therefore, employees
in direct service positions would remain operational, while staff
support employees would be furloughed. When the partial shutdown
began December 16, 1995, about 55,000 Agency employees, most of
whom processed claims and/or provided direct public service, were
told to report for work. A total of approximately 11,000 staff
employees remained furloughed.
On January 5, 1996, Commissioner Chater informed OMB that SSA’s
contingency plan was amended to include the processing of annual
wage reports (AWR). SSA would be receiving nearly 235 million
earnings reports for calendar year 1995 from employers and self-employed
individuals. If processing was not accomplished timely, the
accuracy and reliability of SSA claims processing would be seriously
compromised and a permanent disruption of SSA’s ability to administer
the trust funds would occur. Timely posting of wage information
was essential to enable SSA to recompute the benefit payments of
three million working Social Security beneficiaries, as well as
to compute the national average wage index for 1997. If AWR
processing did not begin immediately, SSA would not be able to accurately
compute the 1997 wage base by the statutorily required date, resulting
in a permanent loss of receipts for the trust funds, as well as
untimely or inaccurate benefit adjustments for 1997. SSA recalled
approximately 950 employees, and following past practice, hired
250 seasonal employees to process this workload. A total of
9,255 employees remained furloughed.
On January 6, 1996, all Government employees returned to work.
The Government operated under a continuing resolution, pending passage
of a budget for FY 1996. On February 20, 1996, Commissioner
Chater provided a statement to the Committee on Appropriations on
the adverse effects of the budget turmoil. She indicated that
SSA managed to operate under the funding limitations imposed by
the continuing resolution, but did so at a significant cost.
If funding continued to be limited to the rate specified in the
continuing resolution, the impact on SSA would be devastating to
employees and the public that it serves.
On April 26, 1996, President Clinton signed legislation providing
appropriations for the remainder of FY 1996 for agencies and departments
not having regular appropriations bills enacted. The Commissioner
advised employees of this action and thanked them for their patience
during the FY 1996 budget crisis.
The shutdown had a devastating effect on the Agency and, in particular,
the 11,000 employees who were deemed non-essential. During
the shutdown, the work piled up in the offices, and when employees
returned to work, they felt pressure to reduce the backlogs.
The furlough was followed by a major snowstorm in January 1996,
which closed many Federal offices in the Baltimore-Washington area
for three days. This resulted in even further backlogs, which
took several months for the Agency to reduce.
This was an unprecedented journey for both SSA managers and employees.
Although it was a time of anxiety and stress, there was some comfort
in the fact that SSA was able to provide basic services to the public
and to provide employees with up-to-date information as the long
budget process unfolded. The professional demeanor presented
by all employees throughout this extremely difficult period in our
history reveals their inner strength, sincere dedication to the
public they serve, and commitment to moving the Agency forward.
Year
2000 Transition (Y2K)
"As Commissioner of
Social Security, I can assure all Americans that when the new
millennium arrives on January 1, 2000, Social Security benefits
will continue to be paid on time and in the right amount . .
."
Commissioner Kenneth Apfel |
In most instances, when a computer crashes or experiences problems,
it means trouble to a user or organization. However, in 1989
when SSA experienced an internal problem in the debt collection
system, it was the best thing that could have happened to the Agency.
Why? Because the system that crashed tracked repayments of
people who owed the Agency money, and when an employee tried to
project a repayment date of 2000, the system came to an abrupt halt
because it could not handle the 2000 date. At this point,
SSA’s Deputy Commissioner for Systems, Dean Mesterharm, realized
that the year 2000 was not that far off. This problem would
affect the Agency’s other systems, and therefore SSA needed to begin
to take steps to ensure that the more than 48 million payments to
beneficiaries would not be in jeopardy. Because of this insight,
SSA was at the forefront of the Y2K issue and served as a model
for other government agencies. The General Accounting Office
recognized the Agency as a federal leader in addressing Y2K readiness.
[14]
In the fall of 1995, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
recognizing the critical nature of the problem and that Social Security
had taken positive steps to address it, asked SSA to be the champion
for Year 2000 and increase awareness of the Year 2000 issue.
In this role, the Agency organized an informal committee that was
called the Year 2000 Interagency Committee. Assistant Deputy
Commissioner for Systems, Kathleen Adams, was asked to chair the
Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council Sub-Committee on the Year
2000. The purpose of the Committee was to raise awareness
of the Year 2000, address cross-cutting issues that affected many
or all Federal departments and agencies, and share best practices.
The Committee began meeting in November 1995 with only a few representatives
attending. The number of participants grew steadily with each
regular meeting as more and more departments and agencies became
aware of the Committee's purpose. In the spring of 1996, Congressman
Stephen Horn, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Management,
Information and Technology, began to hold hearings on the Y2K issue,
and participation in the Year 2000 Interagency Committee grew rapidly
as a result.
In August 1996, the Information Technology Management Reform Act,
which was enacted as part of Public Law 104-106, became effective
and mandated a CIO Council to review and provide guidance on information
technology issues across the Federal Government. At the CIO
Council's first meeting in August 1996, it decided that the Year
2000 issue was one of the most pressing information technology issues
facing the government. In November 1996, the Council made
the Year 2000 Interagency Committee an official subcommittee of
the Council, and the name became the CIO Council Subcommittee on
Year 2000.
As SSA had already done a lot of the analysis, the Agency prepared
a paper to share with the subcommittee members outlining the results
of its analysis, and recommendations for how to solve the Y2K problem.
Ultimately every CIO and every agency head was responsible for its
own software, so these efforts greatly assisted other agencies because
much of the groundwork had already been completed.
When the Y2K problem first surfaced, no one had a clear definition
of what it meant to be Year 2000 compliant. The subcommittee
addressed this issue and came up with a definition. In January
1997, it was published as an interim rule in the Federal Acquisition
Regulation and became final in July of that same year. Under
these regulations, government agencies had a standard warranty language,
which meant that the industry was not dealing with different definitions
from every federal agency.
In March 1998, intensity grew on the Hill as Congressman Horn continued
holding hearings on Y2K issues and issuing report cards showing
where each agency stood. There was an immense amount of pressure
on all agencies, particularly those that did not fair well.
From the start, Social Security was one of the few Federal agencies
to receive a grade of “A.”
In the months leading up to Year 2000, one of the primary goals
of SSA was to ensure that January 2000 Social Security benefit payments
were issued and delivered timely. The Agency tested its personal
computers, network servers, peripheral devices and software for
Y2K compliance and took appropriate action to remedy any identified
compliance problems. SSA’s systems were tested and certified
as Y2K compliant and validated by a panel of independent experts.
Although SSA was confident that its systems were fully Y2K compliant,
it took measures to ensure that payments to beneficiaries would
not be interrupted in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
A contingency plan was designed to analyze and review the Agency's
payment processes in the period affected by the Y2K rollover date,
identify any payment-related problems that might occur and apply
contingency strategies to act on them. To accomplish its Y2K
transition goal, SSA partnered with the Department of Treasury and
the U.S. Postal Service to ensure timely check processing and delivery.
With contingency plans in place, SSA did not experience any payment-related
problems during or after the Y2K date change. Together, SSA,
Treasury and the Postal Service, in cooperation with the Federal
Reserve Bank, designed and implemented an innovative and effective
plan. It resulted in staging and processing of benefit checks
so that they were issued and delivered timely and without incident.
"The Social Security
system is now 100 percent compliant with our standards and safeguards
for the year 2000."
President Bill Clinton 12/28/98 |
The Y2K problem evolved from a technology problem to a business
problem to a public relations problem. SSA’s systems were
Y2K compliant by the end of 1998. Its systems had been tested
and certified. From that point, the focus was getting information
out to the public that SSA’s systems were ready and that there was
no need for public hysteria. The Agency reassured the nation
and the public by keeping them informed on its progress.
In an interview with Government Computer News in 1997, Kathleen
Adams was asked if SSA was ready for Y2K. She responded, “We
have no choice but to make it, and we will make it. We cannot
manually issue 50 million payments.” And SSA did make it.
On January 3, 2000, Commissioner Apfel announced that Social Security
checks were “signed, sealed and delivered!” There was no interruption
in benefit payments or service to the American public. With
the Y2K challenge behind it, SSA geared its focus toward other technology
challenges including serving its customers in the new millennium.
Electronic
Service Delivery
Quickly changing demographics, which caused substantial increases
in the public’s demand for services, created the need for Social
Security to develop new and automated methods of handling workloads.
At the same time, the rapid technology growth of the Internet made
it possible for this medium to become a new channel for transacting
business with SSA. Public information from the Social Security
Administration is part of the information superhighway. Electronic
service delivery is a key Agency initiative and is the cornerstone
of SSA’s vision for 2010. [15]
Internet Services
Social Security has been a participant on the Internet since 1989,
providing statistical data to educational facilities and other researchers.
Several issues and challenges faced the Agency as it considered
how to develop Internet applications that were capable of completing
the public’s business. First, the aging of the baby boom population
projected large increases in disability and retirement claims, as
this segment of the population aged. Also, as the personal
computer use grew in the nation, the public expected and demanded
that SSA develop the Internet as an alternate channel for conducting
business.
Other catalysts in Internet service delivery were the Government
Paperwork Elimination Act of 1995, which required SSA to provide
electronic options to conducting business by October 2003 and the
Information Technology Management Act of 1996. These acts
directed the Agency to significantly improve the management of its
information systems, refocus information technology management to
directly support mission strategies, establish clear accountability
for information management, build a greater interagency support
structure, and cooperate in the use of information technology government-wide.
On May 17, 1994, SSA announced Social Security Online to the public
at http://www.ssa.gov. Since its inception, Social Security
Online has established itself as one of the premier government online
services. It has been recognized by such publications as The
Washington Post, which called Social Security Online “the ultimate
website,” PC/Computing Magazine, which recognized SSA’s website
as one of “101 Best Net Bets,” and the Government Executive Magazine
website, which named Social Security Online as one of the “Best
Feds on the web.” Team Internet was also presented with a
Hammer Award for its efforts.
Since going live, more than 26.1 million people have visited the
site. Public use of the services has dramatically grown since
1994. The following chart depicts the growth of visitors to
Social Security Online since its launch.
Growth Rate of Social Security Online
By Year
(service begun 5/17/94)
|
YEAR
|
# OF VISITORS
|
% CHANGE
|
1994
|
22,212
|
|
1995
|
171,175
|
671%
|
1996
|
722,415
|
322%
|
1997
|
2,700,518
|
274%
|
1998
|
4,921,218
|
82%
|
1999
|
9,788,277
|
99%
|
2000 proj.
|
14,719,607
|
50%
|
SSA issues “certificates of coverage” for expatriate U.S. workers
to document their continued coverage under U.S. Social Security
and their exemption from foreign Social Security taxes in accordance
with the terms of international Social Security “totalization” agreements.
In 1995, SSA issued over 26,000 certificates. (This number
would grow to 40,000 by the year 2000.) In the past, U.S.
employers requested certificates of coverage via fax, telephone
or mail. In 1995, SSA began a pilot program to allow employers
to also request the certificates over the Internet, thus becoming
one of the first U.S. Government agencies to offer web-based services.
Using the Internet to request certificates of coverage improves
accuracy by providing automated online data review and speeds up
the issuance of certificates. The pilot proved very successful
and a large percentage of certificate requests are now processed
electronically.
In response to the fast-growing use of the Internet by the public
and major organizations, both public and private, in 1994, SSA began
investigating an enhancement to put the Personal Earnings and Benefit
Estimate Statement (PEBES) on the Internet. On March 5, 1997,
SSA began testing a new feature in which Internet users could request
a PEBES from Social Security and receive the statement immediately
at their personal computers. Internet processing of a request
for a Social Security Statement saves 98 percent of the cost of
a statement sent to the customer in the traditional manner.
This statement, which had been available from SSA in printed form
for nine years, has become an important financial planning tool
for Americans.
PEBES gives people ready access to important personal information
in Social Security records, namely a year-by-year breakout of a
worker’s earnings history and estimates of his or her present and
future Social Security benefits. It offers an important service
to the public by providing wage and benefits information which workers
and their families can use to help make financial plans for retirement.
Despite the Agency’s careful preparations prior to launching the
online PEBES, concerns were raised by the public that SSA had not
done enough to protect the online PEBES from the eyes of other Internet
Users. Nothing is more important to the Social Security Administration
than maintaining public confidence in the privacy of the personal
information that it maintains on American citizens. The Agency
recognized that the public’s perception about the online PEBES could
undermine confidence in the safety and security of the sensitive
data SSA maintains. For this reason, on April 9, 1997, Acting
Commissioner John J. Callahan suspended the online PEBES until SSA
could get expert advice on what it needed to do to provide this
service while assuring strict protection of personal privacy.
In September 1997, SSA issued a report to customers entitled Privacy
and Customer Service in the Electronic Age. A further
discussion of Internet security is found in the subsequent chapter
on Program Integrity.
Even with the challenges of electronic service delivery, Commissioner
Apfel and Deputy Commissioner Halter shared a vision that called
for SSA providing a full-range of Internet-based services.
The Agency adopted and began to implement an aggressive schedule
for providing these services. The Social Security website
was transformed from a medium for sharing information with customers
to an option that customers can use in transacting some Social Security
business. Electronic service initiatives implemented have
improved customer options for contacting Social Security and established
the Agency as a leader in the movement toward a more efficient and
effective electronic Government. As of December 2000, Social
Security Online maintained approximately 15,000 pages for
public browsing and downloading. Some of the Agency’s electronic
service delivery achievements follow.
SSA embraced the National Performance Review’s recommendation to
expand electronic commerce for Federal acquisition by conducting
an electronic commerce pilot in 1997. Use of the Internet
and electronic commerce has been expanded in each subsequent year.
SSA posts all of its acquisition notices and solicitations on its
Internet home page, allowing interested vendors to read and download
them. In FY 1999, the SSA discontinued the years-old practice
of mailing paper copies of these documents to vendors. Contracting
opportunities are instead announced exclusively by electronic means.
All of the requirements are posted with the Electronic Posting Service,
which will, in the near future, be the one place a vendor needs
to go to see all Government requirements. Using electronic
commerce methods is faster and more economical for SSA—i.e., saving
the cost of printing paper copies of solicitation, labeling and
mailing them and maintaining a bidders mailing list. Benefits
to vendors who register with the Electronic Posting Service include
automatic email notification of Federal business opportunities of
interest to them. The address of SSA’s Acquisition Home Page
is: www.ssa.gov/oag/.
In April 2000, Social Security launched an online Retirement Planner
that allows workers to compute estimates of their future Social
Security retirement benefits. This service allows workers
to better prepare and plan for their future financial security.
The Agency enhanced the suite of services available through the
online Retirement Planner
in October 2000 to include important information
on disability and survivors’ benefits. This new tool (called
The Benefits Planner) now contains a Retirement Planner,
a Disability Planner and a Survivors Planner and can be accessed
from the home page of Social Security’s website. The online
calculators have been enhanced to add estimates for disability and
survivors benefits. The Agency has also added an “earnings
limit” calculator to the Retirement Planner. This feature
allows workers to compute the effect of earnings on their Social
Security retirement benefits. The Retirement Planner also
links to the American Savings Education Council’s “Ballpark Estimate”
worksheet. This link lets individuals combine their estimates
of future Social Security benefits with estimates of income from
pensions and savings to see if their current savings practices will
provide for a comfortable retirement.
In July 2000, in conjunction with the Health Care Financing Administration
(HCFA), Social Security developed an online application that allows
individuals to request a replacement Medicare card. A user
can go to Social Security’s website to access the online application.
Customers enter the requested information and the replacement card
is mailed to the address of record. In the first four months
this service was available, over 6,000 requests were processed.
In October 2000, Social Security rolled out an Internet Retirement
Insurance Benefit application, making it possible for individuals
to apply for their Social Security retirement benefits over the
Internet. Individuals age 61 and 9 months or older, who are
ready to apply for their benefits and want to use the Internet,
may use this new service to complete their application online.
This new service makes it possible for individuals to complete their
application for retirement benefits at their convenience and save
a visit or telephone call to their Social Security office.
A user can go to Social Security’s website to access the application,
directions for completing the application, and an explanation for
submitting the completed form. The application page provides
information on security and privacy. In the testing phase,
with a limited universe of potential filers, an impressive 5 percent
of all filers elected to use the electronic benefit application.
Social Security is working with partners in the public and private
sector in piloting emerging technologies to gain experience in their
use and effect on key business processes. These projects include:
Electronic Medical Evidence: In anticipation of the
requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPAA) for special protection of electronic medical information,
the California Medical Association initiated a pilot to test public
key infrastructure (PKI) encryption and authentication for transferring
medical evidence in the medical community. SSA was invited
to join the pilot. The Agency will use PKI certificates to
exchange digitally signed and encrypted medical evidence between
selected California healthcare providers and Social Security components.
The pilot will give SSA experience in implementing and testing PKI
technology, as well as a promising tool to address privacy, security,
and authentication for medical records. The pilot will also
position Social Security to better respond to changes in medical
evidence requirements brought on by HIPAA, and move the Agency forward
in the electronic disability initiatives.
Channel Convergence: In July 2000, Deputy Commissioner
Halter announced the Agency’s partnership with CommerceNet, a nonprofit
consortium, to test a variety of Internet technologies that have
the potential to dramatically enhance customer service. CommerceNet
member organizations worked with SSA to test a variety of technologies
and to develop ways to integrate various methods of providing customer
service such as the telephone and the Internet. This integration
is called channel convergence. Social Security envisions using
Internet services that will allow customers to verbally interact
with an Agency representative while they are online doing various
business applications. This partnership with CommerceNet allows
SSA to learn about new technologies in a controlled laboratory environment,
and will help the Agency determine the viability of these customer
service options.
As of December 2000, at the Social Security Administration, teleservice
is the preferred way for its customers to conduct business.
However, as technology changes, the Agency realizes that customer
preference will also change. The reason is clear: the Internet
is growing faster than all other technologies before it. Radio
was around for 38 years before it had 50 million listeners; television
took 13 years to attract 50 million viewers; the Internet got there
in just four years. SSA views the Internet as an integral
method of doing business with the American public and recognizes
that particularly for younger Americans, the Internet will be the
information source of choice for most of them.
Electronic
Wage Reporting
In 1993, SSA first visualized a system that would accept and process
Forms W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement) electronically. The Agency
receives approximately 250 million W-2s annually from approximately
6.4 million employers. Approximately 80 percent of these W-2s
come to SSA on paper, although it is estimated that more than 60
percent are prepared using personal computers. In 1993, SSA
recognized the growing availability of personal computers in the
private sector and, in particular, their growing use by the small
business community. In recognition of these trends, and to
take the opportunity to improve Government operations and reduce
the reporting burden on the private sector, the Agency developed
the first electronic filing option for submitting W-2s to SSA.
The Online Wage Reporting Bulletin Board Service could be accessed
by employers utilizing a personal computer and modem to voluntarily
transmit wage information to SSA electronically.
The development of a personal computer-based electronic filing option
for wage reporting affords employers with a simple, cost-effective
alternative that also provides an acknowledgment that SSA received
their transmission. This dated evidence of their submission
is not currently available to paper filers, and many transmitters
desiring such acknowledgement pay additional postage costs to transmit
their reports by certified mail or other evidentiary methods.
In the first year of the bulletin board service’s operation, SSA
received 21,276 Form W-2s from 51 submitters; by the 1995 tax year,
this number increased to more than 477,000 from over 200 submitters.
This innovation saved substantial clerical time that the Agency
would have had to devote to processing these same reports on paper.
By 1996, SSA began a major expansion of its electronic reporting
options. The Agency successfully received electronically and
processed more than six million W-2s in tax year 1996, 13.9 million
in tax year 1997, and 15.8 million in tax year 1998. SSA is
currently processing tax year 1999 W-2s. As of September 15,
2000, 45 million W-2s had been received and processed.
SSA’s electronic filing process is one year ahead of its goal to
“…become operational in tax year 2000 and have the capacity to support
tax year 2000 electronic submittals involving 40 million Form
W-2s.” In tax year 2000, employers have the option of filing
over the Internet or using value-added networks. Additionally,
State and Federal agencies can file W-2s by connecting directly
with SSA using dedicated telecommunications.
Obstacles relative to security and electronic signature issues have
been overcome by using the highest level of encryption for all Internet
applications which include secure sockets layer and 128 bit encryption.
A registration module was developed to enable SSA to authenticate
the person who is using the system and issue a Personal Identification
Number and Passcode, which is used in lieu of a written statement.
The Agency will add an option for tax year 2001 that will permit
employers to utilize public key infrastructure technology to further
enhance security.
The new Employer Services Online web
page went live on December 1, 2000. This page offers
employers online registration and access to the online wage reporting
system for uploading and checking status of submissions filed over
the Internet. Additionally, Internet connection specifications
have been developed and are currently being marketed to the software
community for inclusion in their wage reporting products.
Electronic wage reporting has had and will continue to have a positive
impact on many aspects of SSA’s earnings activities including improved
accuracy, improved customer service and reduced cost. For
example, it costs an employer from $12-$26 to report FormsW-2 to
SSA on magnetic media, versus pennies to send the same data electronically.
Additionally, this project has positioned the Agency to accommodate
the business community’s growing interest in filing wage and tax
returns electronically. It is estimated that 70 percent
of all W-2s filed in tax year 2005 will be electronic. This
supported the Agency’s efforts to realize workyear savings by eliminating
labor-intensive processes and to provide world-class service.
SSA also moved forward in other areas
of electronic service delivery. One of the HIA initiatives
that SSA committed to in 1997 was to provide employers with overnight
electronic verification of the Social Security numbers of its employees.
Currently, SSN verification service is available to employers over
the telephone for up to five employees. SSA can also verify
larger numbers submitted via magnetic media or paper listings.
SSA will pilot an electronic Online Employee Verification Service
to test a process that will allow employers to use the Internet
with online screens to key their information in order to receive
immediate feedback. Employers will also have the option to
use an overnight service, where they will receive feedback the next
business day. This will greatly streamline the hiring process
for employers in the private sector.
Conclusion
As technology rapidly evolves, the impact on customers is increasingly
evident. Standards of service are constantly being challenged
and improved. Customers are experiencing faster, easier, and
more efficient service from private industry and expect the same type
of service from Social Security. Achieving this level of service
requires the Agency to challenge traditional approaches to business
and to implement new and progressive ways for customers to conduct
business in the 21st century. Social Security is
committed to providing “best-in-business” customer service to the
American people, while ensuring their privacy and the integrity of
its programs.
FOOTNOTES
|