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OCR Page 1 of 64CC Karen
dnt to
American Federation of Government Employees
National Council of Social Security Payment Center Locals
Morley
Council 109
12/6
600 W. Madison
Chicago IL 60661
Phone: (312) 575-5610 Fax: (312) 575-5611
Agatha J. Joseph, President
DATE: November 22, 1999
Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner
Social Security Administration
6401 Security Blvd.
900 Altmeyer Bldg.
Baltimore MD 21235
Dear Commissioner Apfel:
As President of AFGE Council 109, I am formally requesting that the Social Security Administration stop
punishing our payment center employees for their hard work on our 800 Number, and that it restore the
traditional levels of leave approvals for these employees. I am formally requesting that the agency review
the excessive amounts of time that our payment center employees must spend staffing the 800 Number,
and that it review its policy of removing teleservice centers from the 800 Number for inordinate periods
of time.
Teleservice centers (TSC's) were originally established in 1988 for the specific purpose of serving the
public by responding to 800 Number inquiries. Their staffing levels have never been adequate to deal with
the millions of calls our 800 Number receives each year. Some centers are also SO overwhelmed by other
workloads that they spend relatively little time answering the 800 Number. The Agency has apparently
decided that two or three TSC's should take no calls at all. The Agency's own statistics strongly indicate
that one of the big factors affecting the public's access to the 800 Number --aside from the severe staffing
shortage--is that many of the agency's TSC's are forced to devote most of their regular working hours to
processing "B3 / B5 diaries" (Supplemental Security Income overpayment diaries and letters) rather than
answering 800 Number calls (Attachment 1, pages 1 and 2).
The largest teleservice centers ("mega-TSC's") in particular are spending increased percentages of their
normal working hours on this workload. In September alone the Albuquerque, New Mexico mega-TSC
spent 100 % of its regular hours on B3 / B5 diaries. The Birmingham, Alabama mega-TSC spent 62%
and the Auburn, Washington mega-TSC spent 73% of their regular hours on diaries instead of taking
800 Number calls (Attachment 1, page 1).
While TSC's are consistently understaffed and overwhelmed by other workloads, payment centers are
required to pick up the slack on the 800 Number Payment centers (PSC's) were established to adjudicate
claims, make benefit adjustments, and make records corrections that were more legally or technically
difficult than the average Social Security case. Over the past eleven years, PSC's have taken on
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