Monthly Data for National 800 Number Network (N8NN) Average Speed to Answer

The Social Security Administration's National 800 Number Network provides toll-free telephone service to members of the public residing in the continental United States, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. We answer the calls in Teleservice Centers (TSCs) and Processing Centers (PCs) located nationwide. The National 800 Number Network provides agent service five days a week from 7AM to 7PM in the caller's time zone. 24-hour automated services are available 365 per days a year. Normally, call volumes are at their highest levels during the first week of the month and at check delivery times.

The agents who answer calls include Teleservice Representatives in the TSCs, Customer Service Representatives in Central Operations, and Technical Service Technicians and Benefit Authorizers who answer calls in the PC locations. All agents receive extensive training in the various programmatic areas administered by SSA including Retirement, Survivor, Disability, and Medicare benefits and Supplemental Security Income payments. The types of inquires handled range from the status of Social Security Cards applied for through the Enumeration at Birth program to questions about potential eligibility and filing claims for retirement benefits.

For a complete list of services on the National 800 Number Network or other information about our national telephone service, go to: Contact Social Security By Phone.

This data file provides information at the national level by month for federal fiscal years 2007 on for the average speed to answer calls to the National 800 Number Network.

Our software routing vendor provides the data. Beginning in 2013, we moved to a new network called CARE 2020.

• Reporting quarters are administratively set reporting periods and do not necessarily correspond exactly to calendar months.
• The National 800N metrics include Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), which began March 23, 2023.

Fiscal Year (FY): A Federal Fiscal Year (FY) is the 12-month period that starts the Saturday after the last Friday of September and ends the last Friday of September. Most years our fiscal year workload reports contain 52 weeks since we include only full weeks, rather than cut off in the middle of a week. Every few years the reporting period is 53 weeks when we apply the end of week cutoff.

Month: Calendar month.

Average Speed to Answer (seconds): The total time in seconds that calls spend in queue divided by the number of calls answered by agents. We do not include calls abandoned while in queue.