Although the Social Security Administration is working to increase its online capabilities, it lacks a long-term customer service delivery plan, says the agency's inspector general.

Were the IG to write one, it would direct the agency to make available online much of its services.

"A majority of the customers [SSA] will serve in 10 years will expect to conduct business electronically, conveniently, and without the intervention of an agency employee," the IG says in a report dated July 29. 

The agency aims to have 50 percent of retirement claims and 38 percent of disability claims filed through the Internet during the coming fiscal year and is under pressure to conduct the vast majority of its transactions through online self-service.

But while the agency has a plan for short- and mid- range initiatives, it lacks a document outlining what customer service might look like in a decade, the IG adds.  

The report goes on to note that that SSA is building a personal account portal that will be known as MySSA, with implementation expected in the next fiscal year. Through the portal, current and potential SSA beneficiaries should initially be able to access their Social Security statement, change an address and access direct deposit services. Eventually, SSA says customers should have access to all online services via MySSA.

The agency is also developing a Internet claim application in Spanish and will soon unveil an Nonresident Alien Tax Screening Tool, which will allow customers who reside outside the United States to determine whether the agency should withhold taxes from their benefits.

A long term plan would also include proposals to climate COBOL from the agency's information technology environments, the report says.

Current demand for online SSA services may not be very great, however. A majority of customers currently conduct business with the agency through in-person visits and telephone calls, the report says.

Sister publication FierceGovernment also recently reported that only about a quarter of telephone callers to SSA field office who say they currently use a personal computer are "very interested" in using the Internet to conduct Social Security business. And in only one year of four years' worth of telephone service satisfaction surveys obtained by FierceGovernment through a Freedom of Information Act request have more people said they are "somewhat interested" than "not at all interested" in using the Internet for Social Security purposes.

For more:
- download the SSA OIG report, A-07-11-01125 (.pdf)

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