AARP Hearing Center
Key takeaways
- Experience faster service as Commissioner Frank Bisignano slashes Social Security wait times nationwide.
- Take advantage of expanded digital options, empowering you to manage benefits anytime, anywhere.
- Trust in robust privacy safeguards as Bisignano prioritizes data security and personal service for all.
Summary
Social Security benefits are a critical lifeline for more than 75 million Americans, and Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano is focused on making these benefits more accessible, efficient and secure. With priorities like reducing wait times, cutting claim backlogs and embracing a digital-first approach, Bisignano aims to ensure the Social Security Administration meets people where they are — whether online, by phone or in person at field offices.
The key takeaways and summary were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
Full Transcript:
[00:00:00] Bill Walsh: Well, welcome Commissioner Bisignano. Thank you so much for being with us here today. You are the 18th commissioner of Social Security Administration,
[00:00:08] so congratulations on that. Frank Bisignano: My pleasure. Walsh: As you know, probably better than anybody in this country, there are
[00:00:14] more than 75 million people who draw monthly benefits from Social Security. And some of them do it for their retirement savings, some for disability.
[00:00:24] Some, for some it’s a lifeline. Bisignano: Yes. Walsh: But for all of them, they’re anxious to know that the Social Security
[00:00:30] Administration is working efficiently, that it’s easy to work with, and that their benefits are there reliably.
[00:00:36] They can count on those things. And so we’re gonna be talking about some of those things today. Bisignano: It’s my favorite subject.
[00:00:42] Walsh: So you were a CEO in the private sector before this, but you also have a really interesting personal connection with Social Security,
[00:00:49] I think through your grandfather. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Bisignano: I actually grew up in a multigenerational immigrant household.
[00:00:56] My grandfather came to the United States and became a citizen by joining World War I. That was my maternal grandfather who
[00:01:06] ultimately was disabled and blind. And so he was a beneficiary.
[00:01:13] That was in the house. I can remember, you know, you know, always walking with him until he passed
[00:01:20] when I was 9 years old. My dad was an orphan, one of 15.
[00:01:25] And in 1940, when Social Security became available, he was in the first group of
[00:01:33] eligible people. He went on to, you know, world War II and ultimately spent 44 years in the federal government.
[00:01:43] [Walsh might have mumbled, but it’s inaudible]In the Treasury Department. Walsh: Mm. Bisignano: So I feel honored to get the opportunity.
[00:01:49] I didn’t have the opportunity to serve as my grandfather and father did for this country, but now I get the opportunity to serve the country.
[00:01:56] Walsh: That personal connection with Social Security was a real lifeline for your family. Bisignano: Yes. Yeah, a hundred percent.
[00:02:03] A hundred percent. The ability to get that supplemental disability back in the day was, because he was blind, was tremendously helpful to our family.
[00:02:12] Walsh: And now you’re the commissioner. Maybe you can talk a, a little bit about what your priorities are and what steps
[00:02:18] you’ve taken in, in that direction. Bisignano: You know, to me in coming as commissioner,
[00:02:24] and having, you know, the time you’re nominated and then you’re ultimately
[00:02:31] confirmed, you’re paying a lot more attention to the organization
[00:02:36] you’re gonna run, but you’re doing it from afar. Walsh: Sure. Bisignano: There was a lot of change that went on, and there was a lot of change before I
[00:02:43] was appointed. But I went on the website, looked at the performance stats, and thought that we could do a much better job for the American public. And if we’re
[00:02:53] gonna live the mandate of the president and his great mission for us and his great leadership, which is to protect and
[00:03:03] preserve, the first thing we have to be able to do is serve the American public in a manner they’re accustomed to be served.
[00:03:11] And we created a phrase I created before I got there, which is we’re gonna meet clients where they wanna be met, let’s meet ’em in the field offices,
[00:03:18] let’s meet ’em on the phones, let’s meet ’em on the web, however they want is what we’ll do, and I think we have a lot of accomplishments there.
[00:03:27] We cut phone wait times by, in many cases, more than 50%. And that allowed us to answer 65 million
[00:03:37] more calls last year than the prior year. And I think that matters.
[00:03:42] That means people are, get their confidence up that they’re not gonna wait long, and they’re gonna get served.
[00:03:49] Putting appointments out there in the field offices allows people to wait maybe 6 minutes when they go to a field office with an appointment.
[00:03:57] So it’s really about being a digital-first agency, but meeting clients where they want to be met and always being, you know, the human touch where they need it.
[00:04:06]Walsh: I saw during your confirmation hearing, you said you wanted to make Social Security Administration a premier service organization.
[00:04:14] Bisignano: Yeah. Walsh: That’s not how people usually think about government agencies. Bisignano: Well, I think technology is the great enabler, and if you take a digital-
[00:04:23] first mindset, which is how people deal with their daily life today ...
[00:04:30] Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: So the idea was how do we have a web-enabled platforms, how do we make it easier for our employees
[00:04:37] to do their job, because it’ll be easier for them to serve the American public. And I think today we had a web that was down, I think over 27, 29 hours a week.
[00:04:50] And that’s a lot of people who wanted to contact us technically. Walsh: Right. Bisignano: And couldn’t.
[00:04:56] Now it’s. Not down at all. Walsh: Hmm. Bisignano: At all. And that would be a digital-first agency. Walsh: Well, let’s say more about that.
[00:05:02] What does a digital-first Social Security Administration look like to the average beneficiary? How would they see it show up?
[00:05:08] Bisignano: I think they’d see it show up the way they deal with everything in their life. Walsh: Hmm. Bisignano: Right? Whether it’s how they interact with Walmart, how they interact with all other
[00:05:19] types of entities, the ability to have what I call an omnichannel experience.
[00:05:26] It’s the same in our field offices — Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: As it is on the phone, as it is on the web, and pick your choice, but
[00:05:34] you can always use digital-first. And if you’re looking at volume today, if we’re doing 700 million transactions,
[00:05:43] the large majority are on the web. Walsh: Hmm. Bisignano: And so Americans, you know, we have a hundred million digital
[00:05:50] users right now signed up. Walsh: Now, what do you say to somebody who may be watching this who, when they hear
[00:05:56] the term digital-first, they get nervous? Bisignano: I say, come to the field office. They’re open. We have not closed one field office under President Trump’s leadership.
[00:06:07] Everyone’s open. We were open on the 24th and the 26th. Our people volunteered to come in, and that
[00:06:17] talks about the morality organization. So you know, we have 25,000 people in our field offices,
[00:06:23] so you want to come talk to us? Come on in. Walsh: You have a commitment to keeping those open or ... Bisignano: A hundred percent. Walsh: A
[00:06:29] hundred percent. Bisignano: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. You know, in 1990, people thought there were gonna be less bank branches
[00:06:36] every year. There’s more bank branches today than there were in 1990. We can’t foresee closing a field office.
[00:06:45] It’s a place where people go. Walsh: Yeah. Bisignano: It’s their money. We’re dealing with money. Walsh: Yeah. Bisignano: We are the largest retirement planning system in the world.
[00:06:55] Right? We’re in a hundred percent of Americans’ retirement plan. Right? We have a very large obligation to be available all the time —
[00:07:06] Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: For the American public, for when they have concerns about things. Walsh: You’re encouraging people to get online themselves with accounts.
[00:07:14] Can you talk a little bit about that? Bisignano: It mirrors what the public does today. Right? And that’s why our transaction volume on the web is fundamentally
[00:07:27] the large majority of transactions. Walsh: Mm. Bisignano: And then the phones, and yes, people come in field offices, they have good
[00:07:34] wait times, but really encouraging them because it’s self-serve. Walsh: One of the things you talked about during a confirmation hearing was the backlogs —
[00:07:43] Bisignano: Yeah. Walsh: And trying to tackle the backlogs. I know at least with disability claims, the backlogs have gone from, like,
[00:07:49] a million to 800,000 or something. Bisignano: A million. A million to 140,000 to
[00:07:57] 1,240,000 to piercing under 800,000 now.
[00:08:04] Walsh: So tell me, tell me how you accomplish that. Bisignano: Yeah. As I’ve studied it, it’s really about inventory.
[00:08:11] Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: How much inventory do we have? Are we working down our inventory? We set out on every metric we have.
[00:08:18] Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: We like to talk about, we’re gonna set the world record for this number. And that’s the journey we’re on. I think
[00:08:26] having the first time ever we have a single chief of disability.
[00:08:33] Right? We did that on SSI also, which is for our most vulnerable,
[00:08:38] there was nobody in charge. Walsh: Hmm. Bisignano: So leaderships matter. We have career executives running these.
[00:08:45] We bring technology and automation to the workflow. Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: And it’s a constant improvement sport for us.
[00:08:52] Walsh: They’ve also been concerns expressed about data, data integrity. What can you say to people about their personal data in Social Security?
[00:09:01] Bisignano: Well, you know, I’ve spent a career protecting P.I.I. — Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: At the largest financial institutions in the world.
[00:09:07] And now I feel like I run the largest financial institution
[00:09:13] for retirement and vulnerable. The number 1 identifier for every American is their Social Security number.
[00:09:20] Walsh: Mm-hmm. Bisignano: Right? It’s the number 1 identifier. And so our job to have it completely secure, and we go through a lot of
[00:09:29] vulnerability tests, not for any other reason, than to make sure nothing’s been
[00:09:37] gotten into. Walsh: Hmm. Bisignano: So it’s kind of job 1, to me, privacy data is job 1.
[00:09:44] It’s a monumental responsibility. And we brought in, we’ve brought in great leadership.
[00:09:49] I elevated the jobs of risk to report to me, risk management and
[00:09:56] cybersecurity to report to me. Walsh: Hmm. Bisignano: And we have 2 great career executives, a person who oversees cyber, Secret
[00:10:03] Service and then oversaw the park police and owns all of security reporting directly to the commissioner.
[00:10:10] Walsh: Right. Is the growing number of scams associated with, you know, people preying on all
[00:10:16] Americans, I suppose, to try to get access to their Social Security number, what role can you play? What role can the agency play?
[00:10:23] Bisignano: Well, we’re continuing to roll out education. We like to have a program called Slam the Scam.
[00:10:30] We really want everybody to really be cautious with their data.
[00:10:35] Somebody’s calling up asking for your number because they’re from Social Security.
[00:10:41] That’s not us. I say that loud and proud to everybody. Walsh: Social Security will not call.
[00:10:47] Bisignano: They’re not gonna call you and ask you for your Social Security number. OK? Walsh: Good to know. Bisignano: Ask you how to get the money outta your bank account.
[00:10:54] But people can easily be vulnerable to that. So I just ask everybody, you know, it’s your information, keep it to yourself,
[00:11:03] and be very, very, very cautious with all your P.I.I. and all your financial —
[00:11:10] Walsh: Yeah. Bisignano: Records. Walsh: Now AI is playing a role in your drive to increase the efficiency of Social Security Administration.
[00:11:16] Can you talk a little bit about that? Bisignano: Yeah, I like to, I like to say that the best way to increase
[00:11:22] efficiency is raise quality. Walsh: Mm. Bisignano: Get better outcomes for our clients.
[00:11:28] Do it right the first time. Walsh: Mm. Bisignano: And in a lot of ways, for our people,
[00:11:34] AI makes their jobs easier. Right? And so to me, AI is just technology.
[00:11:40] You know, if you think about the advent of technology, it’s how do we do it better?
[00:11:46] How do we use the tools so we don’t have to look in 5 systems, but
[00:11:51] bring 5 systems to an employee? And ultimately that means we’re serving the client faster.
[00:11:57] Walsh: You know, a narrative we hear so much from younger consumers is, “Social Security won’t even be there for me.”
[00:12:04] What, what would you say to them? I’d say it’s been a promise to pay forever and my deep belief is, you
[00:12:12] know, we’re here to protect and preserve, and any problems that may be out there
[00:12:18] have been there before and been solved. Right? I, I take this job as the 18th confirmed commissioner with a deep
[00:12:26] commitment to run it so darn well that we’re all prepared to invest in the future of every American.
[00:12:33] Walsh: I want to thank you so much today, Commissioner, for coming in and talking with us. Bisignano: Oh, my pleasure. Walsh: I really appreciate it.
[00:12:38] Bisignano: There’s nothing more important than us than speaking to our constituents jointly, and I feel a deep,
[00:12:44] deep partnership with AARP, and our ability to do things together would be better for everybody.
[00:12:50] Walsh: Great. Well, good luck in all the work you’re doing. Bisignano: Thank you.
