The Social Security Administration is struggling with a backlog of thousands of unprocessed eligibility documents and half of field offices report being “overwhelmed” by mail as a result of the agency’s inability to properly manage processing of the mail during the pandemic, the agency’s inspector general reported last week.
since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, most social security offices have been in a maximum telecommuting position, but some managers have had to report to their offices to handle mail tasks. Lawmakers have repeatedly highlighted constituent complaints about the need to mail original copies of sensitive documents, including driver’s licenses and birth certificates, to the agency as a result of office closures.
Last week, the agency’s inspector general issued an interim report on mail-handling issues at field offices and found that the agency “has no performance metrics” and does not maintain information on mail volume. mail coming in, going out or considered pending. and does not have policies or procedures to track and return the original documents customers submit to prove they are eligible for benefits or a social security card.
According to the report, mail handling issues have led to a backlog of thousands of original customer documents and thousands of unprocessed Social Security card applications.
“for example, a [program service center] had more than 9,000 unprocessed original documents that it had received since November 2020,” the inspector general wrote. “We found that some of these documents were necessary to establish people’s eligibility to receive benefit payments. some offices had a backlog of raw applications for new or replacement social security cards. One field office had 677 unprocessed applications as of July 2020. We also looked at a social security card center that had over 9,000 unprocessed applications as of May 2021. As a result, people have not yet received their original documents or social security. card number.”
In addition, the inspector general found hundreds of thousands of undeliverable pieces of mail that had been returned to the agency’s offices, “some of which were more than a year old.” in some cases, undeliverable mail is supposed to cause a payee’s payments to be suspended or terminated. many managers responsible for handling mail told the watchdog they were feeling overwhelmed by a massive increase in mail received during the pandemic.
“About 50% of field office managers reported they are overwhelmed by mail tasks and about 20% said they cannot keep up with mail workloads,” the report states. “Some office managers also told us they didn’t have adequate in-person staff to keep up with mail tasks while offices were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
At the root of these problems is the fact that the Social Security Administration has no way of measuring mail flow in its offices and adjusting staffing levels to deal with it, the inspector general wrote.
“Without this information, SSA cannot know how much raw mail you have, what is in the mail, or how old it is,” the report states. “Furthermore, agency leadership is unable to assess staffing needs and distribute workloads. Without an effective system of internal control, there is a greater risk that the ssa will lose confidential documents.”
The inspector general said he will publish a final report on these issues, and other matters related to Social Security’s response to the covid-19 pandemic, by the end of the year. but in the meantime, the agency said acting commissioner kilolo kijakazi ordered a series of changes to better control mail flow and stopped requiring customers to send original versions of identification documents such as driver’s licenses. /p>
“upon learning of this issue, the acting commissioner decided to stop requiring the public to mail us sensitive documents and led a review of the mailing processes to implement improvements,” said agency spokesman mark hinkle. “We appreciate the review of this issue by the inspector general’s office.”