AARP Says Social Security’s Customer Service Is Dangerously Inadequate
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Government agencies aren’t exactly known for their stellar customer service. People looking for help from the Social Security Administration (SSA), however, may have it particularly bad.
Average call wait times with the agency have more than doubled in a year, according to SSA data. Even worse, AARP, a leading critic of the SSA's customer service, says that the average amount of time for a Social Security disability claim to be processed has increased to 223 days — and that 10,000 people die every year while waiting for approval.
For Social Security recipients in dire need of answers to their benefits questions and claims, the decline of the agency’s customer support can be more than frustrating — particularly while inflation continues to create hardships for the most vulnerable Americans.
People who rely on Social Security benefits for basic necessities often can't wait around for several months just to get answers from the agency, Chad Mullen, AARP's government affairs director, tells Money.
"For folks who really are depending on Social Security to just get by, to pay the bills, to eat — we’re talking extraordinary long periods of time to just to find out if they’re going to qualify for that benefit," Mullen says.
