It seems that President Donald Trump’s Administration is “not finished” with changes at the SSA, according to the former acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA).
“In the spirit of the president’s call for results over rhetoric, we have reshaped SSA not to serve a party or a press cycle, but to serve the people,” as per an opinion piece for the The New York Post written by Leland Dudek. “We are not finished. But if these first 100 days are any indication, the future of Social Security is not just protected, but is being renewed.”
On a monthly basis, around 70 million Americans receive benefit checks from the SSA. Over the past few months, the Trump Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency have requested that the agency undergo a number of changes — sparking concerns from some.
Changes at the Social Security Administration
Earlier this year, the SSA announced it would be restructuring the agency, as well as downsizing its workforce by 7,000, and Dudek had addressed these matters in his written piece. “We have shifted thousands of employees into direct public-service roles and ended outdated telework arrangements that undermined accountability and responsiveness,” he wrote. Dudek also noted that the agency had treated its workers with “dignity and respect.”
“We’ve given them options to do what works best for them, whether that means volunteering for a public-service role or choosing to separate from the agency on generous terms,” Dudek further stated.
Dudek then went on to highlight the streamlined payment process through which benefits have been adjusted as a result of the Social Security Fairness Act being signed into law. The Fairness Act effectively eliminated two provisions that previously reduced the benefit amounts for a specific cohort of public sector workers. He shared that 2.2 million Americans had received $14.8 billion in retroactive benefits.
“This is what good government looks like: focused, humble, and urgent,” Dudek wrote.
“Some complain we are moving too fast. I say the American people have waited long enough. In the spirit of the president’s call for results over rhetoric, we have reshaped SSA not to serve a party or a press cycle, but to serve the people.”
At the beginning of May, Frank Bisignano had officially been appointed as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, replacing the interim acting commissioner, Leland Dudek. Bisignano asserted, in a Wednesday statement, that he will “protect” Social Security.
“President Trump has been clear about Social Security,” he added. “We will make the Social Security Administration a premier organization.”
How are people reacting?
Recently, the former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley has warned that downsizing staff at the agency can “cascade into a collapse of the entire system and an interruption for some time of benefits.” O’Malley’s predictions, or rather fears, are no laughing matter when considering the fact that Social Security has not missed a single payment since its inception around eighty years ago.
It appears that O’Malley is not alone in his concerns. A group of GOP representatives had also drafted a letter to Bisignano voicing their concerns regarding the restructuring at the agency, as well as the office closures. According to the letter, this group felt that even though “efforts to make our bloated bureaucracy more efficient were welcome, reforms should not disrupt services for those who rely on payments.”
Likely due to the staffing cuts, recent months have brought with it reports of SSA website crashes and lengthened wait times on the agency phone line, as well as at field offices. The most startling of the reports that have been cropping up are the cases of beneficiaries being wrongfully declared as deceased which thereby caused their benefits to be halted.
In a statement shared to The Beast, Rennie Glasgow, a SSA claims technical analyst explained that, “DOGE staffers have mistakenly moved the records of living people to the SSA’s Death Master File, which holds information about individuals who had Social Security numbers and whose deaths have been reported to the federal agency.”