The Social Security Administration has stopped making monthly visits to the Island, leaving the people who live here with no option but to travel to Falmouth to meet in person with a representative. Town leaders are clamoring to have the visits reinstated, but the federal agency says the likelihood of that happening is slim to none.

In January, Oak Bluffs council on aging director Roger Wey learned that the monthly visits from a Social Security Administration representative to the Island would be discontinued. The council on aging had hosted the visits and at first Mr. Wey was told that the cut in service was due to anti-government security concerns in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Arizona. A month later he was told that the cut was in fact due to budgetary cuts. Either way Mr. Wey is concerned.

“It’s very important that they come to the Island because for people with disabilities and older people it’s very difficult and expensive to get to the social security office in East Falmouth to get their questions answered,” Mr. Wey said.

He said on average about 15 people attend the monthly sessions. A social security representative did visit the Island in July but Mr. Wey said it was to help process paperwork for foreign summer workers.

At their meeting last week West Tisbury selectmen sounded off about the new policy.

“It is disturbing,” said selectman Richard Knabel. “A lot of older people rely on that access, even if it’s once a month, rather than having to go off-Island. We deserve an answer.”

“It seems to me ludicrous that they can’t send somebody over one day a month for whatever reason,” added selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter. “It’s a terrible inconvenience.”

Dukes County commissioner and Tisbury selectman Tristan Israel said he has made it his “mission” to restore the service, and both his boards have resolved to draft letters to the state.

“I’ve been trying to do whatever I can to raise community awareness about this issue because I think it’s an important one for the Island and it will be a real hardship,” Mr. Israel said.

Dukes County manager Russell Smith said the county has offered to contribute money to the cause.

“The county has offered to cover the boat and local transport costs, the council on aging has offered office space. If once a month is too much, let’s do it less often but don’t cut it altogether,” Mr. Smith said this week.

But Steve Richardson, deputy communications director for the Social Security Administration in Boston, said this week that the Island is unlikely to be serviced by a person again anytime soon.

“Given the tight budget situation that the Social Security Administration is in, we have to continue to make tough choices as far as offering service to contact stations like that out on the Island,” he said.

Mr. Richardson said that nationwide, the Social Security Administration had reduced its working hours in every office by half an hour. He said offers to pay for transportation to the Island do not take into account all aspects of the new budgetary landscape.

“You can’t put a price on the loss in productivity that it takes away from the office having an individual go out to a site and secure claims and information that can easily be done by telephone or on the Internet,” he said. “It’s not just a monetary resource, it’s also a personnel resource. We have to look at the cost-effectiveness of sending someone out to an off-site location from a full operating social security office like those that exist in Hyannis and in Falmouth.”

He suggested that Island residents look into the administration’s “alternative service options” online at socialsecurity.gov or over the phone at 1-800-772-1213.

Mr. Israel finds such an impersonal approach wanting.

“Their stock answer is that you can do your business over the phone but that stuff is not the same as being able to sit down and talking with someone,” he said.

Still Mr. Israel is hopeful that the federal agency will change its mind.

“It may be tilting at windmills, but it’s a windmill worth tilting at,” he said.