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Changes at the SSA, such as staff cuts and office closures, are affecting customer service and beneficiary payments, and causing long phone wait times By G. A. McNeeley
April 8, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – After President Donald Trump returned to The White House, one big focus of his presidency has been to eliminate wasteful spending in the federal government, which has been led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), underneath Elon Musk. However, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been the subject of mixed messages from the Trump Administration.
Social Security is a program that has sent retirement and disability benefits to over 70 million people, through the SSA, according to TIME.
Trump has maintained that he won’t touch Social Security, while some of his cabinet members cast doubt on whether or not those who receive Social Security benefits should be concerned.
At the same time, reports of DOGE making cuts and closing offices at the agency have led experts to wonder whether the SSA will have the staff required to ensure the checks are counted and delivered on time.
What Is Happening To Social Security?
The Trump Administration has called for substantial layoffs for SSA employees, with leadership saying it will cut 7,000 of its 57,000 staff. However, on March 27, the SSA said claims of office closures were “false.”
Jason Fichtner (senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance) and Kathleen Romig (director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) both raised concerns.
Fichtner and Romig told The Hill that these cuts will affect the services that people receive when they visit Social Security’s website (which has experienced glitches), call their phone number (which has long wait times), or visit a field office (which can be crowded).
These cuts might make it more difficult for eligible Americans to claim benefits (particularly those with disabilities), who might run the risk of dying before receiving the money they’re eligible for, according to CNBC and The Hill.
Fichtner and Romig also both served in senior roles at the SSA, and each of them has decades of expertise on Social Security, according to The Hill.
There’s also been concern about the introduction of new identification policies that require people to go to field offices or access information online, instead of utilizing phone calls. This might alienate older people, and people from rural communities.
On March 18, the SSA announced it will be “implementing stronger identity verification procedures,” that would end the verification of an individual’s identity over the phone.
“Requiring rural Americans to go into an office can mean having to take a day off of work and drive for hours merely to fill out paperwork,” Nancy LeaMond (AARP Executive Vice President) said in a statement on March 19. “We urge the agency to reverse this decision, or for Congress to step in and stand up for older Americans everywhere.”
In a statement made on the SSA website on March 26, the agency said that some people will be exempt from these new rules, allowing those applying for Medicare, Disability, or Supplemental Security Income to complete their claim by other means.
“We have listened to our customers, Congress, advocates, and others, and we are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country’s most vulnerable populations,” Lee Dudek (Acting Commissioner of Social Security) said in the statement.
These changes are set to go into effect on April 14 for everyone else, according to Time.
What Has The Trump Administration Said?
The Trump Administration made it clear that it doesn’t plan to cut benefits from Social Security. In a “fact check" posted to The White House’s website on March 11, Trump said that they will “not cut” the program.
However, the Trump Administration also indicated it believes in cutting wasteful spending within the Social Security program, according to TIME.
“The Social Security Administration made an estimated $72 billion in improper payments between 2015 and 2022,” The White House’s website said. “What kind of a person doesn’t support eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending that ultimately costs taxpayers more?”
Trump’s nominee to be the SSA Commissioner is Frank Bisignano (CEO of Fiserv). Bisignano said he’d be an “accountable leader” at the SSA, and that he had “no intent” of benefit cuts occurring under his watch, at his confirmation hearing.
Newly-instated Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also received backlash after he said that “a fraudster always makes the loudest noise,” on social media.
What Are The Experts Saying?
According to Pamela Herd (Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan), people should be concerned about Social Security. With significant staff cuts, she told TIME that it’s less a question of whether or not benefits will get cut, but whether the SSA will have the staff to actually “deliver the benefits that the Congress has mandated that they deliver.”
“People are waiting for hours to get through on the phone, and then getting cut off before they can actually talk to a representative. The field offices, that honestly were already a bit overwhelmed [already], are now completely overwhelmed,” Herd added. “So there's a real disconnect between the statement, ‘I'm not going to cut benefits,’ and in practice, what is going on in the agency.”
Herd told Time that while DOGE cuts are supposedly about eliminating waste and fraud, the staffing and procedures that are being cut and changed at the SSA are “needed” to prevent fraud and abuse.
“You can't manage 20% of the federal budget on a shoestring. You need actual capacity in that agency, and they've made a series of choices in the last six weeks alone that have significantly undermined capacity of that agency,” Herd added. “People aren't going to be able to pay their bills if the agency can't deliver on the benefits of people with good promise.”
Fichtner told CNBC that his worries were elevated following reports that the SSA (under DOGE) plans to move “tens of millions of lines of code” written in COBOL, within a few months.
“If you start messing with the system’s code, that could impact those who are currently getting benefits now, and that’s a new front-and-center concern,” Fichtner added.
While the Social Security’s systems could use an upgrade, projects of this size are typically handled over a period of years, Fichtner told CNBC. They also typically start with smaller tests (such as one state) to identify issues before expanding regionally, and then nationally, he added.
“You can’t just flip a switch one night and expect to be able to upgrade,” Fichtner added. “It takes due diligence, and you have to understand the complexity of the programs.”
Fichtner also told CNBC that he was concerned about changes at the SSA impacting customer service, as well as applicants for benefits seeing delays.
The White House and the SSA both claimed in email to CNBC that “There is no validity to these reports.”
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