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EXCLUSIVE: The top Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee will demand Thursday that the Social Security Administration explain a spike in phone call wait times following the removal of an online tracking tool from its website.
New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan wrote to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano at agency headquarters in Baltimore with “serious concerns regarding changes to the performance metrics that the SSA shares through its public dashboard.”
Hassan also questioned whether DOGE-centric cuts to the federal workforce and other assets of the government played into the situation, citing Washington Post reporting on the removal and/or replacement of publicly-accessible tools and an independent analysis by minority staff on the Joint Economic Committee.
“Unlike the previous dashboard, the new version also lacks historical data, as well as general processing times for retirement, survivor, disability, and Medicare benefits,” Hassan wrote in the letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.
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“These data and other metrics provide critical insight into the performance of your agency and served as guideposts for seniors and other beneficiaries navigating the benefits process,” she wrote, adding that call and callback times, field-office casework processing times and other data are no longer easily accessible.
Hassan also questioned whether DOGE’s actions had precipitated any of the changes.
“Removing this information may also obscure the impact of deep staffing and resource cuts — driven by the Department of Government Efficiency on SSA’s ability to deliver for seniors,” Hassan said.
“For these reasons, I urge you to immediately restore all previous metrics to the SSA performance dashboard.”
Earlier this month, DOGE won a major victory in its efficiency quest, as the Supreme Court issued an unsigned order lifting a Maryland federal court injunction on its efforts to access SSA systems – which critics argued was untoward because they contain Americans’ sensitive data.
“[U]nder the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the order read.
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A purported screenshot of the now-removed call-time chart shared with Fox News Digital showed a rise from about 4% to 28% hold time from February to March.
However, SSA has claimed similar information cited in the Washington Post report is “false.”
“The reality for callers to our 800-number is about 42 percent handle their business through automated, self-service options. And for those who want to speak to a representative, about 75 percent use the callback-assist feature—they do not wait on hold for long periods of time,” said Stephen McGraw, an SSA spokesman.
“Considering the experience of our customers electing to receive a callback, our average speed of answer on the 800 number is now about 19 minutes so far this year. Moreover, the monthly trends are improving and better than the previous two years, as callers waited only about 12 minutes on the phone before speaking to a representative in May compared to 30 minutes in January.”
McGraw said wait times are forecasted to improve for the rest of the year.
“As Commissioner Bisignano evaluates the agency, we are updating our performance metrics to reflect the real-life experiences of the people we serve and highlight the fastest ways our customers can get service.”
“It is critical that the agency measures what matters most to improve customer service while providing all Americans the information they need to select the service channel that works best for them,” McGraw concluded.
Bisignano has said increased staffing is not the long-term solution to the agency’s systemic woes.
He also appeared to endorse the DOGE idea of upgrading tech systems, saying he wants SSA to be a “digital-first, technology-led organization that puts the public as our focal point.”
Bisignano acknowledged SSA’s last-place ranking among government agencies in employee satisfaction, prior to his taking the reins, and said he wants to improve that aspect too.
In her letter, Hassan also cited DOGE work eliminating 7,000 jobs at SSA – about 4,000 of which were voluntary. DOGE also has sought to upgrade and update SSA technology systems, including a coding regimen called “COBOL” that goes back to the 1950s.
“As a result, beneficiaries have faced service disruptions, error messages, and unprecedented failures in tools to schedule and manage appointments at field offices throughout the country,” said Hassan, whose state had about 20% of its population on Social Security as of 2023.
Hassan outlined several questions for Bisignano, including a real-time report by 5PM ET on the current callback times, wait times and such for Thursday.
She also inquired about any adjustments or deletions to datasets as well as Social Security processing times for retirement, survivor and Medicare benefits, plus specific data for New Hampshire.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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