We Want to Provide Timely, High Quality, and Accurate Service to Your Clients
Date:
Dear Colleague,
Social Security Administration (SSA) employees demonstrate an unwavering commitment to serving people who turn to us for help each year, including over half a million visitors to our field offices each week. However, we cannot keep up with the demand for service, and our annual fixed cost increases like salaries, rent, and guard services, without additional funding.
The Administration asked Congress for a continuing resolution funding anomaly of $800 million more than our fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget, which would have allowed us to maintain level service by hiring employees, funding our fixed cost increases, funding information technology (IT) projects, and allocating overtime to help handle workloads, provided there is not an unexpected and significant increase in demand for our services and programs.
We thank Congress for providing nearly $100 million in additional funding during the current continuing resolution through December 16, 2022, which provides enough funding to cover our fixed cost increases only through December, overtime at FY 2022 levels, and continued hiring at the start of FY 2023. However, it is not enough to cover our annual fixed cost increases or improve service. The FY 2023 President's budget request for SSA - a $1.4 billion increase over our FY 2022 enacted level of funding - is the funding we need to improve customer service for your clients.
We have faced years of underfunding. We are currently operating with approximately 4,000 fewer employees since prior to the pandemic - a 7 percent drop. We are also experiencing historically high levels of attrition. Your clients experience service delays due to the staffing shortage. For example, they are waiting an average of over six months for decisions on their initial disability claims and over 30 minutes to speak to a representative on our National 800 Number.
Without additional funding in FY 2023, we will freeze hiring, cut overtime, and cut funding for critical IT investments.
We must receive the resources to restore staffing losses and continue our important IT investments to prevent deteriorating services that your clients will not and should not accept.
Sincerely,
Jeff Nesbit
Deputy Commissioner for Communications
Social Security Administration