Senate to Hold Hearing on Social Security office closures and service cuts

WASHINGTON, DC– The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold a hearing on Wednesday to examine the impact of recent Social Security field office closures and service cuts.   

The hearing, the culmination of a bipartisan committee staff investigation into service reductions at the Social Security Administration (SSA), comes at a time when baby boomers are filing record numbers of retirement, disability and survivor claims with the agency.  Despite the rising demand, the SSA is currently in the midst of the largest five-year decline in field offices in its 79-year history.  Budget cuts have, in part, led the agency to close 64 field offices and 533 temporary mobile offices since 2010.  The SSA has also shed some 11,000 workers over the last three years and continues to reduce or eliminate a variety of in-person services while trying to shift seniors and others online to conduct their business.

During the hearing,  lawmakers will discuss the findings of the staff investigation and hear firsthand from the SSA and the president of the field office managers association on the service and staff reductions.  The panel will also take testimony from Gadsden County, Florida Commissioner Brenda Holt, who is expected to detail the hardships citizens are facing from the March closure of the county’s only SSA field office.  Tammy DeLong of the Aroostook Area Agency on Aging in Presque Isle, Maine will also be on hand to tell lawmakers about the difficulties seniors have in obtaining Social Security services.  

UNITED STATES SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

HEARING: Reduction in Face-to-Face Services at The Social Security Administration

2:15 p.m., Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 562

WITNESS LIST

Nancy A. Berryhill, Deputy Commissioner for Operations, Social Security Administration

Scott Hale, President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations 

Brenda Holt, Gadsden County Commissioner, Florida

Tammy DeLong,  Aroostook Area Agency on Aging,  Presque, Isle, Maine

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