Mr. Hamlett maintained his angry and loud tone throughout our conversation. I also want to comment on two other issues that are serious drawbacks in dealing with OWCP for employees I have represented. The first is that it takes too long to receive payment after filing a claim after having submitted complete and necessary medical evidence. The earliest case which I have handled as representative was paid in about three months. But the norm for the most cases I have handled is at least six months or even much longer.
Employees encounter severe hardship waiting to be placed in payment status.
Often there are delays because the wrong forms or obsolete forms were completed or because employees were not given the correct forms in the first place by their agency. The voice mail system is frustrating and often does not work right. More often than not, there is no call back after leaving a message. There is insufficient staff to process the workload and employees seem to have become numbed by the backlog of cases they are not able to get to. I strongly recommend that you support funding the agency for more personnel to improve customer service and to clear the backlog of cases.