What kinds of services should legislators perform for their constituents

A common theme this campaign season has been disappointment over how little our elected representatives have accomplished of late. Gridlock and infighting have prevented the passage of much legislation that deals with long-term challenges related to tax reform, energy and immigration, among other issues.

Blame whomever you want for this. But don’t underestimate how much help you can sometimes get with your own financial problems from the people you put in the Senate or the House of Representatives.

Every one of them has employees who do what is known as constituent service, helping people with thorny problems that may involve a federal agency. Most often, they are trying to sort out Social Security problems, federal disability filings, Internal Revenue Service headaches, veterans’ benefits and mortgage issues. Immigration requests involving small-business employees and newly married couples are common, too.

These staff members often refer to their efforts on your behalf as casework and treat it as a social worker would, keeping files on each person who seeks help. “When we hire new workers, I tell them that the only difference between customer service and constituent service is the way you spell it,” said Mike Cantwell, the district director for Representative Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio.

So far this year, Representative Chabot’s staff has handled nearly 700 requests for help. About 270 concerned veterans’ issues, including benefits, and another 170 had to do with Medicare or Social Security. Many offices have specialists who work in one or two areas and have longstanding relationships with officials at federal agencies who can help.

While all of this may resemble retail customer service, remember that it is also retail politics. When trying to help you, Republicans and Democrats both say that they don’t know or care whom you voted for, but there will always be legislators on either side of the aisle who make constituent service less of a priority than others.

“Some members have safe seats and do not have to worry about going to great pains to thoroughly serve every constituent who contacts them,” according to “Keeping It Local,” a guide published by the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on office operations and citizen involvement.

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It’s worth a shot, however. What follows is a rundown of some of the many roles that these caseworkers take on, including surprising advice on how early in your problem-solving process you should contact them.

SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR Sometimes people call or write to their representatives because they don’t know who else to call. “A woman called who thought that a member of Congress could give her free birth control,” said Ryan Stenger, chief of staff for Representative Bob Gibbs, Republican of Ohio. “I don’t think people understand what Congress does sometimes.”

Often, callers’ issues are ones that state legislators or local officials must handle. Still, that’s an easy referral to make: many House and Senate staff members know whom to contact elsewhere, and many have even worked in other parts of government.

So don’t worry too much about being a pest. In fact, it’s better to call too soon than too late. “Hundreds if not more times, we’ve told them, ‘If you could have only contacted us earlier,’ ” Mr. Cantwell said. “A lot of this stuff has things that have to be in by a certain date, or there are so many months to appeal this or do that.”

Not long ago, Representative Chabot’s staff heard from a woman who had received permission in 2000 from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file a lawsuit. She had only a limited time in which to sue, and she did not meet the deadline. Years later, she wanted the congressman to somehow turn back the clock.

The bottom line is this: If you’re dealing with a federal agency, it’s a matter of real financial importance and there is even a small chance that you’re not understanding the process or the agency’s decision, ask your elected representative for help.

MEDIATOR In a recent article in the Sunday Review section of The New York Times — one that gave me the idea for this column — Fred A. Bernstein, a journalist and lawyer, mentioned a friend who got a mortgage modification. Her senator made an inquiry with a regulator after her own extensive efforts at persuading her lender to adjust her loan had failed.

Caseworkers are wary of promising too much on this front. They are not supposed to talk to your lender; they can only speak to its regulator, often the comptroller of the currency. And they will usually do so only if they believe a legitimate question has gone unanswered. “We’re not trying to twist arms,” Mr. Cantwell said. “The fact is, we’re not allowed to do that.”

Mr. Stenger added that the role of the staff in Representative Gibbs’s office was often to pass something along, beginning with an innocent inquiry. “You need to be careful in casework to give the benefit of the doubt to both sides,” he said. “What we do is make people communicate with whom they are supposed to be communicating with quicker.”

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RED-TAPE CUTTER This is a close cousin to the mediator role, and the fact is that House and Senate staff members have a better set of scissors than you do. Gene Crockett, a constituent liaison for Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, has wielded the shears a number of times.

A couple of years ago, he heard from a constituent who relied entirely on his Social Security check for his living expenses. The check had stopped coming, and he couldn’t figure out why. Neither could Mr. Crockett, at first. “I asked him if he had a first wife or something, but that wasn’t it,” he recalled.

He made a few calls and got the Internal Revenue Service involved. Eventually, he discovered that a clerk had switched two digits when recording somebody else’s Social Security number, causing the man to be mistaken for a woman in Illinois who owed the I.R.S. a lot of money. The man probably would have starved before figuring that out on his own.

Another time, Mr. Crockett helped a befuddled nun whose Medicare drug plan kept switching, no matter how many times she switched it back to the one she wanted. He soon discovered that there was a woman in Florida with the same name who was born on the same day. “Every time the woman I was helping switched it, the lady in Florida would get mad and switch it right back,” he said. “How would they have ever found that out?”

He is quick to note, however, that he is not in the business of changing inconvenient facts, like the ones that govern qualification for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. “You have to have worked five out of the last 10 years,” he said. “There are people who haven’t worked, and they get administratively denied. And then they want to argue with you, and you can’t change the rules.”

EXPEDITER But every so often, when things are truly dire, a nudge from a member of Congress can make the rules work as they ought to more quickly. This year, Amanda Binion, a 22-year-old nursing student in Niles, Ohio, came down with a life-threatening form of pancreatitis just after her father lost his job and her health insurance was about to disappear.

Qualifying for Medicaid was the only way to pay for the treatment she needed, but state rules made her ineligible unless the Social Security Administration declared her disabled.

When it became clear how long that might take under normal circumstances, Ms. Binion wrote an e-mail to Representative Ryan’s office and crossed her fingers. She received a reply the next day, and within about six weeks she was on the Medicaid rolls.

“We were desperate,” she said. “Without their help, I would have been waiting for months.”