However, field office employees completed  more work, on average, as a result of greater efficiency. Nonetheless, staffing declines resulted in customers waiting  longer to be served and difficulties for field offices in answering calls from  customers. Reviews of continuing eligibility, however, are key activities in ensuring  payment accuracy. 4). SSA’s 2006 Field Office Caller Survey found that 51 percent of  customers that called 48 randomly selected field offices had one or more  earlier calls that had gone unanswered. These factors may have contributed to a 3 percent  drop in SSA’s overall customer satisfaction rating from 84 percent in fiscal  year 2005 to 81 percent in fiscal year 2008. Growth in Work Demands and an Employee Retirement Wave May Pose Difficult Challenges without a Detailed Plan for Service Delivery

Projected increases to SSA’s workload from retirement and disability  filings by the nation’s approximately 80 million baby boomers and a wave  of employee retirements may pose serious management challenges. SSA’s ability to meet its growing workload challenges will be more difficult as  a result of the anticipated retirement of many of the agency’s most  experienced field office workers. Based on the agency’s projections, 44 percent of  SSA’s current workforce will retire by 2016. SSA’s Strategic Plan Is Ambitious, but It Is Not Clear How SSA Plans to Achieve Its Goals

SSA’s new strategic plan, published in September 2008, calls for SSA to  eliminate the backlog of disability hearings; improve the speed and quality  of the disability process; and improve retiree services—such as achieving  an online filing rate of 50 percent of retirement applications by 2012. This  plan also stresses the workload increases that SSA will face in the coming  years and recognizes SSA’s limited resources. While discussing the strategic  plan with us, SSA officials stated the strategic plan is not intended to be a  service delivery plan that details how the agency will address the service  needs of the retiring Baby Boom generation. Further, while the plan includes strategies to significantly expand  the use of electronic services, it is not clear how the increase of online  services will mitigate the increasing workload. SSA has been deferring work and  letting customer service decline. Still, over 3 million people waited over 1 hour for service last year  and in 2 offices the average wait was over 1 hour. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report are  listed in appendix V.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

The objectives of our study were to determine (1) the effect that staffing  reductions have had on field office operations and (2) the challenges the  Social Security Administration (SSA) faces in meeting service delivery  needs in the future and the agency’s plans for addressing them. officials responsible for overseeing field    Compared the overall number of field office staffing per year from  fiscal years 2005 through 2008 to the amount of work produced overall  by the field offices for the same fiscal years to understand changes in  field office work productivity. Interviewed managers and staff in 21 field offices, 2 Social Security  Card Centers, 2 regional offices, and 3 area offices to gain their  perspectives on the effect of staffing reductions and strategies used to  manage work. SSA Customer Service: Broad Service Delivery Plan Needed to Address  Future Challenges.
Why GAO Did This Study

Millions of people rely on the services of Social Security Administration (SSA) field offices. In fiscal year 2008, SSA's approximately 1,300 field offices provided service to about 44 million customers. People visit field offices to apply for Social Security cards, apply for retirement and disability benefits, establish direct deposit, and a host of other services. Over the last several years, staffing reductions have challenged field offices' ability to manage work while continuing to deliver quality customer service. To better understand the challenges SSA faces in delivering quality customer service, GAO was asked to determine (1) the effect that staffing reductions are having on field office operations and (2) the challenges SSA faces in meeting service delivery needs in the future and the agency's plan for addressing them. In May 2008, GAO reported initial observations on the effects of reduced staff levels. To conduct this work, GAO interviewed SSA headquarters and field officials and analyzed various data on SSA's workloads and customer service.

What GAO Found

Staffing constraints are having adverse effects on field office services. The number of staff in field offices dropped 4.4 percent from 2005 to 2008. As a result of greater efficiencies, field office work produced fell only 1.3 percent during the same period. To manage the reduced staffing, SSA deferred work deemed as a lower priority, such as conducting reviews of beneficiaries' continuing eligibility. However, deferring these reviews means that beneficiaries who no longer qualify for benefits may still receive payments erroneously. Reduced staffing also impacted key customer service indicators. In fiscal year 2007, more than 3 million customers waited for over 1 hour to be served. Further, SSA's Field Office Caller Survey found that 51 percent of customers calling selected field offices had at least one earlier call that had gone unanswered, but for methodological reasons, the unanswered call rate was likely even higher. These factors may have contributed to a 3 percent drop in SSA's overall customer satisfaction rating from 84 percent in fiscal year 2005 to 81 percent in fiscal year 2008. Increases in retirement and disability filings and a significant retirement wave of SSA's most experienced staff pose difficult challenges for SSA in meeting future service delivery needs. SSA estimates that retirement and disability filings will increase the agency's work by about 1 million annual claims by 2017. Further, SSA will experience an agency-wide retirement wave in the coming years--the agency projects that 44 percent of its staff will retire by 2016. SSA published its new strategic plan in September 2008, which calls for SSA to eliminate the backlog of disability hearings and increase online retirement filings to 50 percent of applications. While discussing the plan with us, SSA officials noted that it is not intended to be a service delivery plan detailing how the agency will address the service needs of the retiring baby boom generation. While the plan includes the goal of significantly expanding the use of electronic services, it is not clear how this will mitigate the increasing SSA workload.