Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) engaged in a dispute with a Social Security official on Wednesday regarding teleworking policies post-pandemic and allegations of backlogs.
Boebert inquired of Oren McKnelly, an executive counselor at the Social Security Administration, whether the agency monitored the work output and hours of its many home-based employees.
McKnelly claimed social security employees are “subjected to the same performance management processes” regardless of whether they are working remotely or in the office.
Boebert further inquired of the official the reason for the escalation of the accumulation of social security applicants from 41,000 to 107,000.
McKnelly stated that the administration has witnessed an increase of over 8 million beneficiaries over the past decade and will have the lowest personnel levels ever at the end of fiscal year 2022.
“That’s a math problem. If you have those workloads increasing and you don’t have the staff to take care of those workloads, you’re going to have the backlogs that you’re talking about, representative.” he stated.
The average processing time for social security claims has increased by 100 days since 2019, reaching 220 days in recent months.
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