Shutdown limits Social Security benefit verification letters : NPR

Social Security field office staff say that government shutdown deprived them of the ability to provide an important service to some recipients.

While the agency continues to pay pensions and disability benefits, workers say they are unable to provide letters confirming benefits to people who call asking for them.

These official letters serve as a form of proof of income and are therefore key to receiving assistance such as housing assistance, fuel assistance and assistance from non-profit organizations.

“Not only do people need these letters when they apply for these benefits, they also often need to recertify to prove they continue to have an eligible income level, and this often happens within a set time frame,” says Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Beneficiaries can still access their confirmation letter online and through the Social Security Administration's automated telephone system, the agency said. But during the closure, in-person letter support is suspended, and when recipients call to speak with a local office representative, they can't get help with the letter.

And field office staff told NPR that many people are calling and asking for help. (The workers who spoke to NPR spoke on behalf of their union because they cannot speak on behalf of the Social Security Administration.)

“About 60 to 70 percent of our calls are, 'I need a benefit confirmation letter right now at this time' during the shutdown,” says Tierra Carter, a teleservices worker in the Tampa, Fla., office who also represents a chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees. “A recipient cannot receive a benefit confirmation letter over the phone or through their local Social Security office. And that puts a burden on a lot of our recipients.”

Romig notes that “Social Security recipients are, on average, much older than the American population, so not everyone has access to online tools. Likewise, Social Security serves many people with disabilities. And these disabilities may include things that make it difficult to use the device, such as cognitive impairment, motor skills or memory problems.”

In addition, critics of the SSA automated telephone system, which includes the group Democratic Senatorsreported that it often crashes, loops and does not solve the caller's problem.

Barry Sue Bryant, who has worked at the agency for 20 years and represents the union in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, says many of these calls “tear at our heartstrings.”

She says she received a call this week from an elderly man who doesn't know how to use a computer and needed a benefit confirmation letter so he could finalize his mortgage.

“So he'll lose his mortgage if he doesn't get it on time,” Bryant says. “And we had an 89-year-old young woman who needed it to get her rent subsidy or she might lose it. So she could end up losing her housing because of this.”

In a statement to NPR, an agency spokesperson said beneficiaries will continue to receive their payments, but “as a result of the cessation of SSA appropriations, contingency plan to continue activities.”

Bryant and other Social Security officials say it's disappointing that they can't provide the acknowledgment letter service during the closure.

“They don't think benefit verification letters are necessary, but they are for the public, you know. They really control a lot of their lives,” Bryant says.

Christine Lizotte, a spokeswoman for a claims agency in Auburn, Maine, who also represents the union's New England chapter, says that even when beneficiaries can create an account online, they often have problems.

“We have people who have gone through it, created an account, can't remember their email, can't remember their password,” she says.

Lizotte said the timing of the Maine shutdown is particularly troubling.

Open enrollment for fuel assistance has begun, for which some people require one of these SSA letters. She says it's already getting colder in New England and many people are calling for letters and are now concerned that their help won't be received in time.

“If you don't apply, by the time it gets cold – and I mean it gets cold – you could lose out, or you could have a deferred fuel assistance voucher, meaning you could be frozen out for the first few months,” she says.

“So it feels like a huge disservice: We've spent our entire careers here helping these people, and now we're being told, 'Oh, sorry, we can't help you today.' And this is more than frustrating. Goes against everything we are.”

“Almost at the limit”

Many workers are reporting an increase in the number of these frantic and frustrated callers, while SSA workers themselves are struggling.

Due to the shutdown, employees are left without salaries, and many of them also took on more work in the past few months due to thousands of agency layoffs initiated by the Trump administration.

Alex Creese, a claims specialist at the agency in Aurora, Colorado, says on behalf of his local AFGE union that many employees are “living paycheck to paycheck” and are worried about paying their bills while the shutdown continues. He said the stress of these heartbreaking calls from recipients is adding to an already difficult situation.

“Right now, because of the shutdown, our hands are tied and we are already so exhausted that we are now stretched even further,” he says. “So, whether it's programs that we can't offer or programs that we can offer, it impacts everything. And now we are almost at a critical stage.”

Kreese fears more employees will leave the agency.

“We're up in smoke right now,” he says. “If the quarantine continues, then… I could see all these talented people leaving. It’s just that the situation right now is not very good at all.”