With Social Security offices still closed to Mainers, Golden calls for reopening

Social Security offices in Maine have been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, but there’s increasing demand that they reopen.

On June 10, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agencies to plan for resuming in-person services and increasing the number of employees at federal workplaces. But no such plan has yet been made public by the Social Security Administration.

U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine 2nd District, is calling for the SSA to open its doors.

“The current unavailability of most in-person services at SSA field offices … creates difficulty for people who lack broadband access, have certain disabilities, or are otherwise more comfortable with in-person service,” wrote Golden in a recent letter to the administration.

“In light of the public’s need to access SSA services in a timely and convenient way, I request that SSA expedite its OMB-mandated reentry planning to increase staffing at field offices to enable a wider set of in-person services, and to end the requirement for people to part with their original identification documents.”

In Maine, there are six offices, where SSA beneficiaries and other residents come for a variety of services as well as functions such as obtaining or copying passports and birth certificates.

In 2019, the Social Security Administration’s 1,400 nationwide field offices saw an average of 174,464 daily visitors, or more than 100 visitors on average per office per day. Last year, 267,617 Maine residents were Social Security beneficiaries.