Calling Social Security? Brace for long waits as phone line struggles. What’s the hold time?

Trying to get through to Social Security on its 800 number? Be very, very patient. Wait times have been averaging roughly 35 minutes.

In September, the latest data available, the average time on hold was 34.7 minutes. The shortest average wait so far this year came in May, 28.8 minutes. The longest was in March, 39.8 minutes.

The agency’s phone system struggles are not new. It had “an increasing number of service disruptions at the end of 2022,” according to a Social Security Administration inspector general’s report in June.

The independent watchdog found the disruptions “resulted in dropped calls, increased wait times and, in some instances, unavailable automated services. Wait times increased as (agency) employees could not take calls during several of the outages.”

Congress is noticing.

Reps. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, have introduced the “Stuck on Hold Act,” which would require the Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs, which has also experienced customer service issues, to tell callers the estimated wait times.

If the wait is longer than 15 minutes, the agency would give the consumer the option of receiving an automated call back when it is their turn in line.

The agencies would have up to a year to put the new system into effect.

“Taxpayers should not be left on hold for endless amounts of time praying that someone answers their call,” Calvert said.

Social Security: We’re trying

At Social Security, “We are doing what we can to improve phone service,” said Darren Lutz, an agency spokesman, who cited the hiring of new phone agents for the toll-free number, 800-772-1213.

The agency has moved to a new phone system, which Lutz said “allows us to receive more calls and provides callers with estimated wait times, and will soon provide an option for some callers to receive a call back instead of waiting in a queue. “

Social Security plans more improvements, he said, though ”to improve our phone service we will need sufficient and sustained funding.“

This year, about 67 million people get a Social Security benefit each month. Average benefit last month was $1,710.

The agency pays about $1.4 trillion in benefits during the year. Last year, about 77% of the benefits went to retired workers or their dependents. Another 11.6% were disabled people or their dependents, and 11.5% was paid to survivors of deceased beneficiaries.

The agency does not comment on pending legislation, and many key lawmakers and advocates are concerned about potential agency budget cuts while they and also want customer service improved.

“For too long, Congress has underfunded SSA, leading to increased customer service deficiencies that have become far too common,” said Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president, government affairs, in a letter to top House Social Security subcommittee members.

AARP noted that the waits are particularly troublesome for people seeking disability benefits, whose questions and applications often take months to resolve.

What advocates want is more funding for the entire agency, including money that will help improve customer service.

“While we support any reasonable measures to improve customer service at the Social Security Administration — including reducing wait times on the agency’s toll-free phone number — much more than this legislation is needed,” said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the nonpartisan National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

“SSA has been chronically underfunded for more than a decade. That is the reason that customer service has suffered,” Richtman said.

The phone mess

The phone problem has been festering for years. Between May 2021 and December 2022, Social Security had 40 telephone service disruptions on its national toll-free 800 customer service number and field office telephone systems, the inspector general’s report found.

The disruptions ranged from brief to as long as four straight business days in May 2021.

Most of the outages happened from October to December 2022 and involved the 800 number.

When the system was available, people had to wait longer than in the past. Wait times to get through via the 800 number were more than 25 minutes in November 2021, jumping to about 40 minutes in January 2022. Wait times in fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30, averaged 35.8 minutes.

For a long time, Social Security had three telephone systems: the toll-free number, its field offices and its headquarters.

It is replacing that system with what the inspector general called a “modern, unified telephone system…expected to improve telephone customer service by merging SSA’s three telephone systems into a single, uniform platform designed to be more efficient, stable, and functional.”

The COVID pandemic delayed progress. Complicating efforts at serving the public were the closing of field offices, so as the report put it, “the telephone became the primary option for the public to interact with SSA employees.”

Social Security officials say they want the system to become more efficient, but the current federal budget has meant a hiring freeze, meaning the agency cannot replace telephone agents who leave.

President Joe Biden has proposed a budget that would allow the agency to hire more people and continue improvements.

Said the agency’s Lutz, “With additional hires and enhancements to our phone system, we can begin to reduce the wait times on our national 800 number.”