Warren asks Social Security's inspector general to evaluate customer service amid agency overhaul

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking the Social Security Administration’s inspector general to audit the agency’s customer service amid concerns that the Trump administration-spurred reorganization has hurt the agency’s ability to assist the public.

Warren wants to know whether telephone and in-person wait times and other key metrics have worsened and how Commissioner Frank Bisignano is calculating the data, according to a letter the Democratic senator sent to the inspector general today and obtained exclusively by CNN. Also, Warren is asking whether the agency is providing accurate information to the public about its customer service metrics.

The request from Warren, who met with Bisignano yesterday, comes at a time when the agency has shed roughly 7,000 employees and implemented a new AI tool on its national 800 number.

Bisignano has promised to quickly improve customer service. However, he has greatly reduced the performance metrics that were previously posted online. A survey conducted by Warren’s staff last month found that telephone wait times averaged nearly an hour and 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, the agency has touted its customer service achievements.

Social Security handled nearly 70% more calls on its 800 number last week than the same period a year ago, while cutting its average speed of answer to six minutes, from 30 minutes last year, according to a press release posted yesterday.

Warren has requested detailed data about customers’ ability to access phone services and have their issues resolved. She has also asked how staffing decisions have affected phone and in-person services.

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