Nearly all public contact with the Social Security Administration continues to be done over the phone or in person, the Social Security Administration inspector general notes in an Oct. 28 report.

The SSA has approximately two dozen Internet-based electronic services available to the public, some of which score extremely well in quarterly American Customer Satisfaction Index satisfaction rankings. As of April, the agency was receiving 39.6 percent of retirement applications online.

Yet, only one percent of public contact during fiscal 2010 occurred via an Internet transaction, the OIG report says.

The agency, the OIG adds, should develop a strategic plan specifically for electronic services, a recommendation it has made before, but one that the SSA continues to oppose. "We do not believe it is wise to commit to specific expansions or refinements of agency electronic services in future years given the constantly evolving needs of the agency and our customers," Dean Landis, SSA deputy chief of staff, says in the agency's official response to the audit. Landis also says that the agency's commitment to electronic services is already evident in the overall strategic plan.

The Future Systems Technology Advisory Panel, a committee the SSA established in 2008, has counseled the agency that online self-service "appears to be the only solution that will enable SSA to process future transaction volumes."

Unaddressed by the OIG is the degree to which the public is willing to adopt online services. In surveys of callers to SSA field office obtained by sister publication FierceGovernment through the Freedom of Information Act , only about a quarter of respondents have said they are "very interested" in using the Internet to conduct Social Security business in recent years--a percentage outweighed by those who have said they are "not at all interested."

The SSA has recently turned to celebrity spokespersons, including George Takei of Star Trek fame (embedded video), to encourage the retiring public to go online, the report notes.

For more:
- download the report, A-14-11-11112 (.pdf)

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