Social Security offices lost estimated 20% of staff this year, causing delays

Workers inside the agency that oversees Social Security warn that they're buckling under the strain of understaffing — accelerated by recent Trump administration initiatives.

Why it matters: Americans applying for benefits or needing help at their local Social Security field offices are facing delays, workers say.

• "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," says Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents about 25,000 Social Security Administration employees.

The big picture: Attrition and understaffing are long-standing problems at the agency that every presidential administration has needed to manage.

• The Trump administration's hiring freeze and efforts to force out employees with early retirement and buyout offers, made a tough situation worse, employees say.
• That's particularly the case inside the more than 1,200 local field offices, the agency's "front-door," where folks go to apply for benefits, get new Social Security cards and conduct other business with the agency.

By the numbers: An analysis of union workforce data shared exclusively with Axios from the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labor groups, finds that field offices were down 1,034 union employees — nearly 5% of staff — across the country as of March 2025, compared with the prior year.

• States that lost 10% or more of staff over this period, include Wyoming (down 17%) and Montana (-14%), where locals already face significant drive times to field offices; and West Virginia (-14%) which has the highest disability rate in the country (field offices handle such claims).
• Another 1,962 field office workers then accepted the DOGE "buyouts," according to agency data, cited by AARP.
• And this summer, the agency reassigned about 1,000 field workers to staff its national 800-number. And it said more such reassignments were possible.

Stunning stat: All told, that could translate to a nearly 20% reduction in field office staff, from March 2024, according to Axios' estimate.

• Staffing overall at the agency is at 53,000, a spokesperson tells Axios. That's down from 57,000 last year.

Friction point: Social Security Administration commissioner Frank Bisignano says customer service issues are the Biden administration's fault, and is touting improvements to service.

• "SSA is experiencing a customer service turnaround after four years of long wait times and record backlogs under the Biden administration," Bisignano wrote to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this week.
• In response to the union's analysis, an SSA spokesperson referred to the commissioner's letter, saying "we have seen significant improvements in delivering customer service online, on the phone, and in-person."
• "Our ability to serve more people than ever while reducing wait times across the board is a direct result of our decision to invest in technology to empower our workforce, while leveraging better process engineering," the spokesperson said.

Yes, but: Some of the improvements Bisignano has been promoting were put in motion by the previous administration, employees tell Axios. That includes an appointment system for the field offices that has shortened wait times. (But now it takes a long time to actually get an appointment.)

Where it stands: Agency morale is low. Employees say they can't keep up with growing demand.

• "I have actually seen employees who have literally just broken down and just started crying in the office," says Renata Davis, an agency employee and representative from AFGE Council 220, who spoke to Axios in her capacity as a union rep.

Between the lines: The internal angst comes amid a slow drip of comments from the administration that have led advocates for the program to worry for its future.

• There are also concerns over the solvency of the Social Security trust fund. On Tuesday, the agency's chief actuary said that the big, beautiful bill, now law, will speed up the depletion of the trust fund.

The bottom line: There's been a lot of insecurity over Social Security this year.

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