Budget savings and overpayment reduction

12/07/2016
My field office has 83 employees and we go through approximately 5,000 sheets of printer paper on any given day. Now, multiply that by every office across the country and it’s easy to see we need a change. This does not include expenses for toner, maintenance, and early replacement of printers due to excessive wear and tear. The Social Security Administration has committed to going “green” and the volume of printing we do as an agency is enormous and is counterproductive to that goal. The current business practice is wasteful and expensive. Below is a cost estimate per letter for field offices:
• Paper per page $0.01 (the average pages per letter 5-total cost $0.05)
• Toner per page $0.01 (the average pages per letter 5-total cost $0.05)
• Average FO employee salary $50,000 @ average of 10 minutes per letter $4.00 (included in the 10 minute estimate-generating the letter, enclosing the letter in an envelope & adding postage)
• Average postage cost per letter $1.07
• Total cost per letter mailed $5.17
This is just the cost to mail the letter. Next, we will look at the return mail we receive in the Field Office.
Our office is a large office, we receive about 50-75 pieces of returned mail daily, what does that look like?
• Large office 50-75 pieces of Returned Mail: $256.50-$384.75 per day,
• Medium office 20-30 pieces of Returned Mail: $102.60-$153.90 per day,
• Small office 10-15 pieces of Returned Mail: $51.30-$76.95 per day.
(Wasted postage, employee time, resources and materials)
When you see the daily totals, just in returned mail the amounts are significant. Look at the annual amounts of just returned mail:
• Large office: $66,690-$100,035
• Medium office: $26,676-$40,014
• Small office: $13,338-$20,007
Also, please remember that for every piece of returned mail we receive, we have to send out two more mailings (bank letter and post office letter) just to investigate the returned mail. We are now adding $4.98 to the original cost of $5.17 to try to locate the beneficiary bringing the total cost to $10.15.
Additional cost is the paper shredding service we contract. The current baseline cost for shredding is $30.00 minimum per visit for two large bins. We have eight bins that are emptied on a monthly basis. We have to pay an additional cost of $6.00 for each bin beyond the first two bringing our monthly cost to $66.00 per visit. That means we pay $1,716.00 annually for shredding paper.
I would like to present an alternative idea that is efficient and will reduce costs across the board in our agency. I feel like a reasonable change is to send application receipts, redeterminations summaries, benefit verification letters and many other documents straight to the number holder’s email address and/or their MySSA account. Utilization of this electronic format will dramatically reduce the office expenses we have right now and will provide an opportunity to reinvest budgetary funds toward other critical projects. The technology is available most of us use it daily. Typically, when you make an on-line purchase, your receipt is e-mailed or texted to you. There is not a paper copy unless the user deems it necessary. It is a fast and efficient method of delivery. Users can store their documents electronically and not have to worry about losing it over time. Another benefit of email is that most people keep the same email for long periods of time, if not forever. However, home addresses and telephone numbers change quite often, which results in costly returned mail. Most field offices receive 30-50 pieces of returned mail every day. This is again wasteful and not at all efficient.
Human error comes into play as staff shuffles paper from a printer with multiple users and puts PII loss at risk. Considering the volume of paper used in our offices, inadvertent loss of PII happens from time to time. The idea of “printing” (emailing) directly to a user’s email or Myssa account would all but eliminate accidental PII loss.
We need to implement a change, which requires that we obtain an email address from every contact we make each day with Social Security so we can initiate contact with our clients and advise them of a new document, appointment, or task. When I order an item from Amazon.com, my receipt comes in the form of an email and is also viewable on my Amazon.com account. Paper receipts in the private sector are obsolete. If SSA can shift to this paperless receipt/notification method, our savings nationwide would be astounding. Obviously, there will be a small subset of the population without an email address, so current practices will have to remain in place for them. The rest of our customers with an email address will receive our communications electronically. File a retirement claim, get an emailed receipt; file a disability claim, get an emailed receipt. SSI Claims Specialists can send a redetermination appointment letter via email. Read receipts can be utilized to confirm message delivery. The uses for this type of customer engagement tool is limitless.
With the progressive attitude we have in our Agency, this is a concept that should become reality. The framework is already in use in our daily lives so we will not have to create this from the ground floor, but rather, we can modify existing products to meet our needs. Our agency’s focus is improving the services to the public. There have been many improvements made through our customer engagement tools, but we have not held ourselves responsible for the substantial changes needed for the ways we initiate contact with our clients. I feel the suggestions I have made will translate into millions of dollars saved throughout the agency. Money saved can be put to use to promote new services and possibly new employees. The Agency is out front and leaning forward as we get leaner and greener. Increasing use of online services, specifically the use of email in conjunction with MySSA accounts, will help us meet the demands of our growing customer population.

Ken Kirk, T16 Claims Specialist
Jacksonville South SSA, DO 655