Schumer calls on SSA to boost funding for Syracuse field office

CICERO — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) is calling on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to pour additional funding into the Syracuse field office to pay for additional staff and equipment.

The Syracuse office has “the longest waits in New York,” said Schumer. “The Syracuse hearing office has a backlog of 9,000 claims. That’s a lot of people…”

Schumer spoke July 2 during a visit to the Cicero Senior Center at 5924 Lathrop Drive in Cicero.

The Syracuse field office has the state’s largest pending-case backlog with more than 9,000 outstanding retirements, supplementary-security income, and disability claims, and the average wait time for a hearing to be processed is more than 620 days, his office said in a release. 

The Syracuse SSA field office received more than 22,000 calls last year, the second most in the state, but only answered 66 percent of calls, Schumer’s office said, citing “recent data.” 

The office is located in the James N. Hanley Federal Building at 100 S. Clinton St. in Syracuse.

SSA funding increase

The Democrat negotiated a $480 million increase in SSA funding, which was included in the recently passed omnibus bill, according to Schumer’s news release. Lawmakers approved the $1.3 billion spending bill in March, which keeps the government in business through the end of September.

The omnibus spending bill provides $12.9 billion for SSA’s administrative budget. It includes an increase for general operations and additional staff, as well as designated amounts of $280 million for information-technology modernization and $100 million for reducing the disability-hearings backlog. 

This important funding increase for the Social Security Administration is “long overdue but certainly much appreciated,” Randy Hoak, AARP associate state director for Central New York, said in his remarks at the Cicero Senior Center.

“Too many AARP members and too many Americans are frustrated by these long waits to get [through to] the Social Security Administration on the phone, if they can get through at all. Too many of our members and too many Americans are frustrated by reduced field-office hours when they try to take care of matters in person,” said Hoak. 

During Hoak’s remarks, Schumer noted the work of AARP that he said helped result in the funding increase for SSA. 

Washington, D.C.–based AARP, which has nearly 38 million members.

SSA office role

Social Security field staff help seniors and those living with disabilities apply for benefits, replace lost Social Security numbers or Medicare cards, apply for retirement benefits, and report changes in their address. 

In 2016, SSA field office employees helped 43 million visitors nationwide and that number will continue to grow with the retirement of additional baby boomers, Schumer’s office said. 

The Omnibus bill helps retain and improve the SSA’s field-office infrastructure, providing a “temporary moratorium” on field office closures that have “disproportionately” impacted New York, according to Schumer’s office. Despite its importance in recent years, the SSA has had its operational capacity “tightly restricted,” it added. 

Since 2010, Congress has cut SSA’s operating budget 11 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, leading to a loss of more than 10,000 employees including 3,500 field office staff, the closing of 65 field offices, including 12 in New York, and reduced hours in field offices nationwide. 

In Syracuse, in-person visit wait times average nearly a half-hour, Schumer’s office said.