The Social Security Administration reports it is handling more calls with a faster response time thanks to technology enhancements and process engineering.
New telephone technology has been implemented on the agency’s the national 800 number and in SSA field offices, according to an SSA news release.
During the week of July 12-19, the agency handled almost 1.3 million calls on the 800 number last week, a 70% increase from the corresponding week last year. Additionally, the average wait time was 6 minutes, down from the average of 18 minutes so far this year, and 30 minutes in 2024 — an 80% reduction.
The administration also reported reducing the customer wait time in field offices to 23 minutes, a 23% reduction from the average of 30 minutes last year.
Online service has also been improved through elimination of regular scheduled downtime of 29 hours a week. The agency reported that this allowed 125,000 more people to access their online accounts during the first week.
The agency also recently reported that it sent more than 3.1 million payments totaling more than $17 billion to individuals eligible under the Social Security Fairness Act, which became law on Jan. 5. Under the new law, the agency identified 2.8 million Social Security beneficiaries whose benefits were reduced because of the Windfall Elimination Provision or Government Pension Offset. Those included police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other public servants. The agency said it completed the task five months ahead of the estimated time of a year or more.
The SSA reported that it has reduced disability claims backlogs to 940,000 pending cases, down 25% from over 1.2 million in 2024, which it says was a record. The average processing time for claims is currently five days, an improvement from the times before Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano took office on May 27.
