Members of Congress and advocates say the Social Security Administration is providing the public with misleading information about how long it will take to resolve their problems.
Over the last several weeks, the agency has stopped making public 34 real-time performance metrics about things like how long they will have to wait to reach a live person on the phone, and how long applications for new senior benefits or social security benefits take to be approved. The metrics have been used for years to show how time-consuming it can be to reach a live person at certain locations or through the national 1-800 number, and as an accountability measure for the agency.
Instead the webpage now emphasizes how quickly problems can be resolved online, and says the "average speed of answer," which excludes callback wait time, is 19.2 minutes.
USA TODAY reporters called Social Security's 1-800 line multiple times over several days and found the wait times to be consistently over an hour. Multiple times they did not reach a live person before the line disconnected with no warning.
Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano told members of Congress June 25 that three out of four people who call that 1-800 number use a call-back feature so they are not waiting on the phone. He said he took the wait time metric off the website because he thought it kept people from calling.
