Bureaucracy and waiting in line seem to go hand in hand. I’m pretty sure we’ve all groaned at the idea of a trip to the DMV.
Social Security offices aren’t particularly fast either. According to a recent audit report, a trip to a Social Security office can involve waiting nearly an hour and sometimes more.
As its name implies, the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (OIG) oversees the activity of the Social Security Administration (SSA) itself. That means conducting audits, evaluations and investigations to identify weaknesses in the system and possible solutions.
The recent OIG audit sheds light on just how time-consuming a trip to a Social Security office really can be.
On average, customers had to wait 5 to 12 minutes to begin the check-in process and an additional 32 to 45 minutes to receive services. So the average wait time in total was between 37 and 57 minutes.
More than 3.3 million people waited more than an hour during the 2023 fiscal year.
Self-check-in kiosks are generally the quicker option for Social Security office visitors, although not every location offers them.
The average wait time for customers who checked in using kiosks was 39 minutes in total, while customers relying solely on employee assistance to check in had an average total wait time of 53 minutes.
The OIG determined these numbers by observing 76 field offices and card centers in early 2023 — well after the SSA resumed in-person services in April 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic. The OIG also interviewed SSA staff members and 432 customers.
The audit report suggests the SSA:
- Develop and/or enhance systems that measure how effective any initiatives to reduce customer wait times are.
- Develop wait time goals.
The report notes that the SSA did agree with the first suggestion, but only “partially agreed” with the recommendation to create goals.
Regardless, it may be hard to reach any future goals when there’s potentially a staffing shortage.
OIG observers asked SSA office managers if there were enough staff members to support the number of customers. About 70% of managers said no.
The SSA did have a better year in 2023 staffing-wise, with more employees coming in than leaving (3,618 new hires versus 2,608 separated employees).
That hasn’t always been the case: The number of SSA employees who left outnumbered new hires every year from 2019 through 2022.
At the same time, the number of Social Security beneficiaries has been increasing every year, with a total increase of roughly 9 million beneficiaries over the past decade alone.
