LCO No. 4019 1 of 2
General Assembly Raised Bill No. 7123
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 4019
Referred to Committee on HUMAN SERVICES
Introduced by:
(HS)
AN ACT CONCERNING TE LEPHONE WAIT TIMES FOR PERSONS
CONTACTING THE DEPAR TMENT OF SOCIAL SERV ICES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) The Commissioner of Social 1
Services shall deploy staff and resources as necessary to ensure that no 2
person contacting the Department of Social Services by telephone 3
waits more than sixty minutes to speak with a department staff 4
member or receive a call back from a department staff member. The 5
commissioner shall contract for and utilize advanced 6
telecommunications technology that allows the department to (1) track 7
incoming telephone calls by number, date and time; and (2) send an 8
automated message to a caller every five minutes of time he or she is 9
waiting on the telephone about the option of receiving a call back from 10
department staff in an estimated amount of time not to exceed sixty 11
minutes. No beneficiary of any assistance program administered by 12
the department shall have benefits reduced or terminated for failure to 13
provide information confirming eligibility if such telecommunications 14
technology establishes such beneficiary placed a telephone call to the 15
department but was unable to speak to a staff person within sixty 16 Raised Bill No. 7123
LCO No. 4019 2 of 2
minutes of placing the call. 17
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
Statement of Purpose:
To reduce telephone wait times for persons contacting the Department
of Social Services to reach a staff member.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]