If you need to update Social Security about on a recent move or bank account change, get in line. It could be a while.
Such cChanges like these may are likely to take longer, and thousands of Americans could see delays or even stopped checks in the meantime, Social Security employees warned USA TODAY.
That’s because Social Security officials have tweaked what they want some employees to treat as a priority for at least the next month to include about 900,000 complicated cases that must be completed by hand.
While the White House says the additional work won’t affect other beneficiaries, employees tell USA TODAY that adding something new and complicated at the top of their daily to do lists means other work doesn’t get done.
Some of the work that they expect to fall through the cracks ‒ like changing direct deposit information or fixing problems with Medicaid billing ‒ could mean the difference between receiving a check or not, they said.
What changed?
Social Security Administration employees at processing centers generally prioritize new claims and appeals each day. In late May, employees at many of the nation’s eight processing centers were told to put Social Security Fairness Act payments at the top of their work list and were offered weekend overtime to get it done.
More: Public workers waited 40 years for law to boost Social Security. Now, they wait for payout
Early this year, former President Joe Biden signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act that will boost benefits to public servants like former teachers or postal workers, to account for money they paid into Social Security for their summer or off-hour private sector jobs but weren’t fully paid under previous law.
The agency initially set a November deadline to process over 3.2 million Fairness Act claims.
New Social Security commissioner Frank Bisignano told senators during his March confirmation hearing that he will prioritize those payments and the work will be done “while the weather is warm.”
“Using automation, SSA has already expedited over $15.1 billion in long-delayed retroactive payments to more than 2.3 million individuals affected,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said.
The agency is prioritizing the remaining about 900,000 cases that are too complex to be processed through automation. These cases require additional time to manually update the records and pay both retroactive benefits and the new benefits amount.
Huston said the agency won’t let other needs fall behind.
“This project is very important to leadership and it’s critical the agency executes it swiftly, efficiently, and without letting anything else fall through the cracks,” Huston said.
But months of upheaval at the Social Security Administration, which distributes retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to more than 70 million Americans of all ages, has spooked many who rely on money provided by the agency for either day-to-day help or for security in their retirement.
Thousands of employees have accepted early buyout offers, interim leaders have changed what identification can be used and modification to technology behind the scenes caused multiple website failures. The turmoil led to increased wait times on the phone and extended waits to schedule in-person appointments at field offices.
‘Until our workload focus is lifted’
A half-dozen employees at several of the nation’s Social Security processing centers said they were told that the new commissioner wants all of the Social Security Fairness Act claims resolved by July 1, and that they also need to address a backlog of claims that has built up.
Several of the processing center employees who spoke to USA TODAY said they are afraid of retribution for speaking to the media.
Multiple Social Security employees said the orders were relayed verbally, rather than in a written directive, which they said is unusual. Normally an edict to change priorities would have come by email so everyone received the same information, one employee said.
One employee at a processing center on the East Coast shared a Teams message from their manager with USA TODAY that stated they should only assist if the call is related a new claim, an appeal or a Social Security Fairness Act case “until our workload focus is lifted.” The message states they currently expect that order to end July 1, and instructs the employee to inform callers that they cannot help with other issues until then.
More: Social Security wait times were already long under Biden. They’re even longer under Trump.
Employees who received the order said they were told they cannot help with non-priority issues like overpayment reconsideration, updating direct deposit information, checking on monthly payment rates, and Medicare billing related issues.
An employee at a processing center on the West Coast told USA TODAY that processing new claims has always been the agency’s top priority, but that adding the Social Security Fairness Act claims as a must-do item will cause delays in resolving more complicated and time consuming problems.
Yelled at all day
The East Coast employee said he’s having to tell caller after caller that he cannot address their Social Security-related need for the next month, which results in both him and his manager being yelled at all day.
Employees working at some processing centers have been offered overtime to work Saturdays and Sundays for the next five weeks in order to ensure they complete their priority assignments and possibly complete other work, the employees said. Some who offered to work the overtime were told they could be allowed to work the overtime from home.
Another employee in a separate East Coast processing center said they agreed to work several hours on Saturday for time and a half pay. They spent a day in late May processing only new claims and Social Security Fairness Act cases, which their manager said would continue through the end of June.
The employee said they normally spend about 6 hours of each work day on issues like problems with Medicaid payments, death underpayments or when disability benefits and retirement benefits are accidentally paid at the same time. Those will not get done, the employee said.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Social Security workers warn of delayed benefits as focus shifts
