The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the agency responsible for running the Social Security program which provides tens of millions of vulnerable Americans with a stable income. This year has been one of many changes for the agency, with the issue of staffing causing many advocacy groups to voice concerns.
Social Security beneficiaries are a vulnerable group, many of whom rely primarily, or sometimes solely, on their monthly benefit checks to cover their expenses. As such, it is imperative that the roll out of their monthly payments goes smoothly month after month without fail. Staffing at the agency has been a point of contention for many in recent months due to changes enacted by the Trump Administration, however.
The SSA currently has its lowest staff count on record in 5 decades, and according to workers at the agency, the strain of under-staffing is beginning to take its toll. Here is what you need to know.
Staffing crisis at the Social Security Administration worsens?
There are currently around 74 million beneficiaries to the Social Security program and this substantial cohort of vulnerable individuals are now facing potential delays with the benefit claims. In February, the agency announced that it has plans to reduce its workforce by around 12% (7,000 workers) by the end of the 2025 fiscal year. Recently, another 1,000 workers had also been reassigned, and as things currently stand, employee morale is said to be at an all time low.
Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220 explains that, “When it takes too long to get your benefits into your bank account after you file because of the understaffing situation, you’re going months and months without needed income that was promised to you because you paid in your whole life.”
Whilst under-staffing has been a continuous problem within the SSA, the situation appears to be worsening now under the Trump Administration. At the beginning of the year, President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) enacted major cutbacks at the agency which sparked major concern regarding benefit delays from former officials and current beneficiaries alike. According to SSA employees, “the Trump administration’s hiring freeze and efforts to force out employees with early retirement and buyout offers, made a tough situation worse.”
AARP further notes that “40 of the agency’s approximately 1,200 field offices have a staff loss rate of at least 25 percent. Eleven offices are losing a third or more of their workers, and three — in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin; Nevada, Missouri; and Alexandria, Minnesota — will see at least half their staff depart.”
What is the SSA Commissioner saying?
According to a union workforce analysis from the Strategic Organizing Center that had been shared exclusively with Axios, “field offices were down 1,034 union employees — nearly 5% of staff — across the country as of March 2025, compared with the prior year.”
Between the 1,962 workers accepting the DOGE “buyouts”, the 1,000 field workers being reassigned (with more to come possibily), and several states losing at least 10% of staffing over a one year period, there has been a reduction of at least 20% in field workers overall from March 2024 to March 2025. However, the total number of workers at the agency currently stands at 53,000 (down from 57,000 in 2024).
Subsequently, Sen. Elizabeth Warren met with the SSA Commissioner recently to discuss several issues at the agency, with customer service being one of the topics of conversation. Following this interaction, Warren had written a letter to Bisignano voicing concerns over “mismanagement” at the agency. Bisignano then responded to Warren’s concerns via letter wherein he alleged that the blame of the customer service issue at the agency is to be placed with the former Biden Administration.
“The consequences of the Biden Administration’s delayed and mismanaged re-opening of SSA offices after COVID-19, combined with the prioritization of employee telework over customer service, sparked bipartisan complaints. SSA’s customer service levels rapidly deteriorated,” Bisignano wrote in the letter.