Every month without fail, more than 70 million Americans receive benefit checks from the Social Security Administration (SSA). For the vast majority of these households, the monthly benefit check is a staple source of income without which they may not be able to sufficiently cover all of their living expenses. As such, the importance of these checks being rolled out according to schedule each month cannot be understated, however, some employees at the Social Security Administration have been warning of potential delays with upcoming benefit checks.
Here is what you need to know.
Social Security Fairness Act
The Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) was signed into law at the beginning of the year and as a result, a cohort of some 3 million public sector workers had their full benefits restored to them. This cohort previously had their benefits reduced under the provisions of the WEP and GPO due to having alternate pensions provided to them by their employers.
Speaking to USAToday, SSA employees said that “Social Security recipients who are making simple changes like location or bank account updates could face a longer wait than usual,” as a result of the SSFA and the agency’s directive to prioritize updating the impacted cases. Whilst the agency was able to streamline the vast majority of SSFA cases through the use of automation, a significant portion of cases required manual updating due to their complex natures.
“Using automation, SSA has already expedited over $15.1 billion in long-delayed retroactive payments to more than 2.3 million individuals affected,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston previously stated.
The fear of delays was also further bolstered by the fact that the SSA had previously enacted cutbacks — at the behest of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — resulting in a workforce minimization that has left the SSA with its lowest headcount in 50 years.
“The new directive to prioritize Social Security Fairness Act claims, along with staffing cuts enacted by DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency], is creating a backlog to complete other claims and service work like mailing address and direct deposit changes. These delays could be the difference between receiving your check or not,” Drew Powers, founder of Illinois-based Powers Financial Group, shared with Newsweek.
Alex Beene, financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, said to Newsweek, “For months, we’ve been hearing the only cuts to Social Security would be to administrative offices, not to benefits. However, lost in the discussion was how these administrative cuts could provide their own series of problems. Applications for new beneficiaries, account changes for existing ones, and every issue in between these have to be processed, and with fewer employees to assist, delays could be significant.”
“As of right now, there is no need for concern, but the concerns should motivate those receiving benefits to start the process of enrolling, making changes, or anything else as soon as possible. And, most importantly, be prepared to wait,” Beene added.
New SSA commissioner
In May, Frank Bisignano — former CEO of Fiserv — was appointed to the role of SSA Commissioner after being nominated for the position by President Donald Trump in January. Bisignano set July 1st as the deadline for processing all SSFA related cases and as of the end of June, 99% of cases were indeed completed. The Biden Administration estimated that this process would take upwards of a year to complete, whilst early SSA estimates stated that the cases would be updated by early November 2025.
“We’ve got a lot of turmoil. I think we reassigned a lot of people,” Bisignano explained in an address with managers in May. “I guarantee you, we’re going to get the job done, and my dream is to not have to let people go. If we can’t get the job done, that’s a different problem. You guys don’t want people who don’t give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, do you?”