{"id":240,"date":"2026-06-11T21:11:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2026-06-11T21:11:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:11:54","slug":"bisignano-deflects-customer-service-questions-in-congressional-testimony-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Bisignano deflects customer service questions in congressional testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano on Wednesday touted a year of \u201ctransformation\u201d at the beleaguered agency, touting improved service metrics and deflecting repeated questions regarding changes to their underlying methodology.<\/p>\n

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Bisignano testified before a joint session of the House Ways and Means Committee\u2019s Social Security and work and welfare subcommittees, excoriating the Biden administration and former Commissioner Martin O\u2019Malley for what he called a \u201cfailed service model\u201d in the agency\u2019s push in 2024 to encourage Americans to make an appointment ahead of visiting a field office.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I arrived in May of 2025, SSA had four different leaders in five months and was an agency in turmoil,\u201d he said, frequently overwhelming his microphone. \u201cThe American people endured a failed service model with the Biden administration\u2019s so-called appointment-focused service, which turned people away who traveled to our field offices.\u201d<\/p>\n

But O\u2019Malley told Government Executive <\/em>after the hearing that\u2019s not true: the agency specifically warned field office workers not to turn away any person seeking walk-in services.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s totally false,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were doing everything we could to encourage people to make appointments, but we also admonished many times that no one is ever to be turned away. It\u2019s similar to what we did with the [Motor Vehicle Administration in Maryland], which is we told people, \u2018Hey, you should make an appointment,\u2019 but we never turned anyone away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, a 2024 message to SSA employees regarding the Appointment Focused Service initiative makes clear that field offices can and should continue to provide walk-in service. Language on ssa.gov similarly still strongly encourages people make appointments in advance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSSA is expanding appointments (phone, video or in-office where appropriate) to enhance our service delivery and improve the customer experience,\u201d the transmission states. \u201cWe will continue to promote online services and will not refuse in-person customer service at our [field offices and Social Security card centers]. By scheduling most in-person customers for appointments, we can minimize wait times, promote online and automated services, and ensure that staff can focus on delivering quality service to each customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bisignano also continued to tout purported improvements in customer service metrics, which have been hotly disputed by advocates and the agency\u2019s unions due to recent changes to how those statistics are measured.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019ve reduced] the average speed of answer on the 800 number to the lowest level in a decade to under 5 minutes in May 2026\u2014an 89% reduction from an all-time monthly high of 42 minutes in fiscal year 2024,\u201d he wrote in his written testimony.<\/p>\n

But those figures are misleading for two reasons. First, the 42-minute average wait time figure dates back to November 2023; by the end of 2024, average 1-800 wait times had fallen to 12 minutes. The second problem is that last summer, Bisignano changed SSA\u2019s methodology for calculating call wait times by omitting the time customers who elected to be called back rather than be put on hold waited for their call back, instead calculating their wait time as \u201czero.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Last December, the Social Security Administration\u2019s Office of the Inspector General released a report noting this change\u2014and that those who elected to use the 1-800 number\u2019s call-back feature waited an average of one hour 49 minutes to be served\u2014but ultimately found the agency\u2019s published metrics to be \u201caccurate.\u201d And in March, The Washington Post reported that an earlier draft calculated a new \u201ctotal wait time\u201d metric that reflected those people\u2019s waits alongside those who elected to stay on the phone, but it was removed before publication.<\/p>\n

American Federation of Government Employees Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe, whose union represents field office and teleservice center employees, said in a statement Wednesday that Bisignano\u2019s metrics paper over a staffing crisis. The agency has lost more than 7,000 employees since Trump returned to office last year, bringing its headcount to a 59-year staffing low, which dates back to before the creation of Supplemental Security Income, and the agency has reassigned around 2,500 field office employees to man the 1-800 number to spread the workload.<\/p>\n

Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., pressed Bisignano on his reassignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 2,500 employees with specific skillsets all removed and put on the 800 number so when people do call, depending on who answers, they might not have the answers or the skillset to help them, and so they don\u2019t get the proper answers,\u201d Moore said. \u201c[Is] the 800 number and the shuffling of staff\u2014is that supposed to realize some efficiencies that we haven\u2019t seen?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a good way to think about this whole situation is that we used to have 400 people on the phone at 8 a.m. and that was not a sufficient number,\u201d Bisignano said. \u201cThat was predating me, the era you well remember when we told people that appointments were needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell then why are people waiting 46 minutes and then when they do get somebody, that person can\u2019t answer questions because they weren\u2019t put through to the right benefits officer?\u201d Moore asked. \u201cDo you think the 1-800 number thing is a magic bullet in place of not having enough employees?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think in fact is with the right amount of staff in the right places\u2014\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I don\u2019t agree with you on that,\u201d Moore interjected.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t know how to manage 50,000 people anyway,” Bisignano said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., asked Bisignano about training standards for the field office-turned call center employees, citing Government Executive\u2019s<\/em> February reporting that the materials instructed workers to suggest that \u201csuicide is only one option\u201d if they encounter callers who express ideation toward self harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese employees used to get months of training and then would shadow a full time phone operator, but now they\u2019re getting three hours\u2019 training and placed on the phones basically the same day,\u201d Beyer said. \u201cThese are bizarre and dangerous instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we amended that message, and, by the way, we got that from an authority and went back to the authority,\u201d Bisignano said. \u201cIf you want to make that what this hearing is about, that\u2019s kind of fine. We can talk about that one line, we can also talk about the fact that your wait times are down 76%, we can also talk about how field office visits were down 3%.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI just wanted you to say you were addressing the issue,\u201d Beyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe addressed it four months ago when it occurred,\u201d Bisignano said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Social Security commissioner frequently tried to shout over Democratic lawmakers during the occasionally raucous hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management"],"yoast_head":"\nBisignano deflects customer service questions in congressional testimony - Market Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=240\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bisignano deflects customer service questions in congressional testimony - 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