Social Security Administration (SSA) Quarterly Data for
Asian and Pacific Islander Language Preferences
Telephone Interpreter Services (TIS)

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(Updated May 11, 2023)

This data set contains data for fiscal years 2013 onward and is currently available in the following format(s):

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Background

It is essential that SSA employees have the tools to communicate effectively with the American public, regardless of an individual's inability to communicate effectively in English. To achieve our commitment to provide fair and equitable service, we offer Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals the option to use our Telephone Interpreter Services (TIS), a contract awarded and administered by the Office of Acquisition and Grants (OAG), when doing business with us. This service has been available since 2002, is free of charge to individuals requiring language assistance, and is an important component of our service to LEP Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). TIS interpreters are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, which allows us to provide real time service to all of our LEP customers.

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Agency Program Description

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivor's benefits. To qualify for these benefits, most American workers pay Social Security taxes on their earnings; future benefits are based on the employees' contributions. Social Security taxes fund the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Trust Funds that we use to pay Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefits. SSA also administers the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a federal needs-based program financed through general revenue funds. We have approximately 65,000 employees and deliver services through a nationwide network of about 1,500 offices. We also have a presence in several United Stated embassies around the globe.

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Data Set Description

This data set displays our quarterly national TIS call volume for over 55 API languages for the current fiscal year. A fiscal year runs from October through September and a quarter is broken into a three-month timeframe within a fiscal year. We will continue to add a new column to this report at the end of every fiscal year quarter.

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Data Collection Description

The vendor gathers our daily TIS usage by monitoring the number of calls received from SSA, the languages we are requesting, and the duration of each incoming call, then forwards the report to us on a monthly basis. We have faith that the TIS vendor will provide quality service and reporting data as outlined in the contract agreement's requirements.

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Notes

• A Federal Fiscal Year (FY) is the 12-month period from October 1^st through September 30^th. 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. Fiscal Year 2016 is a 53 week year for our workload reports.

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Data Dictionary

Language: SSA customers' preferred API language requesting assistance using TIS.

Fiscal Year (FY) / Quarter (QTR): Data about our TIS call volume for each API language by FY and QTR.

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