Hour and a half. Still on hold. Thanks Social Security, can’t wait for my dad to lose it anyway now that scotus just handed it to musk’s lackeys.
This is what they expect 90 year olds with dementia to handle to stay alive. The music keeps switching to a voice that sounds like someone answered every few minutes, but it’s just an automated “use our website” thing. Needless to say we tried that and the office, which told us to call during these, their least busy hours.
The happy ending is we finally got a human and she helped and was very kind considering how many people likely yell at her for the wait. Thank you D for being there and suffering through to help us. Appreciate you truly!
As a paralegal who handles Social Security benefit claims, I can say something about this! The number up there is the National Toll Free number for Social Security customer service, and when I have to call them as my last resort I usually dial right when I get to work at 8 a.m. EST and end up on holds just a bit shorter than an hour. That's how bad it is. It is also my experience that the workers at the 800 number ARE some of the kindest and attentive people I've ever been on the phone with, and I'm so glad OP's dad was helped in the end.
But there's another possible solution in some cases: Most SSA field offices have their own phone number to call. Using this website to locate your local field office by zip code, the individual office phone number will be included with the address, fax number, and hours of operation. If you recently got any letters from SSA, your local office address and phone number should be included there too. I will get ahold of an employee of the specific office much, much sooner than the 800, and--rare but its happened--they might even be the employee assigned to process the claim I'm calling in about.
Unfortunately, these numbers have a built-in timer of about 16 minutes of hold-time, after which you get a automated voice saying all their agents are tied up and to try calling at a later time. Which is a huge frustration to hear when you placed your call at 3:30 or similar, so again calling as early as possible yields best results.
And yes, it is abominable that they expect the elderly, those with mental/intellectual disabilities, or their caregivers to endure this kind of thing whenever they need to so much as update their mailing address. Which, unless you or your loved one have a mySocialSecurity account, mail is the main way SSA contacts beneficiaries or claimants about any issues with their benefits with phone calls as a rare alternative. The account option is nice but its completely unintuitive or unfamiliar to many of the intended user base, which just feeds back into the long hold times.
