Nearly 75 million people receive benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA), with more older adults, people with disabilities, and other claimants becoming eligible each day. But despite the large and growing number of Americans who count on this already understaffed agency, the Trump administration has reduced SSA staff numbers by thousands, significantly hindering the SSA’s ability to serve claimants and provide the benefits upon which Americans rely.
From President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 to November of the same year, the SSA’s staff shrunk by 6,645 people, a decrease of more than 11 percent from the end of federal fiscal year 2024. These departures have notably reduced staffing capacity at field offices and other important outposts throughout the country, making it harder for Americans to get the services and support they need. In 33 states, the SSA had at least 10 percent less staff in fiscal year 2025 than in fiscal year 2024.* Some states were even harder hit. For example, Wyoming lost 19 percent of its Social Security staff in fiscal year 2025 compared with the prior fiscal year, while Missouri and Wisconsin’s state SSA staffs each shrunk by around 14 percent. Some individual field offices have had even greater reductions, losing one-quarter or more of their staff. Lack of staffing has led some rural field offices to close entirely.
The result is a customer service crisis that harms claimants and their families. In a recent survey of SSA employees conducted in late December 2025 and early January 2026, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) reported that service quality had declined in the past 12 months, while 70 percent reported that service speed had declined. In the first half of 2025, the number of claimants filing for retirement benefits early—in effect cutting their own lifetime retirement benefits—spiked. In polling conducted by AARP, 20 percent of those who considered filing or who filed for retirement benefits earlier than planned cited “[r]educed staff or limited access to in-person services at the Social Security Administration” as a reason, while 17 percent cited “[d]ifficulty reaching the Social Security Administration online or by phone.” Similarly, fewer people are applying for disability benefits; declines in applications, historically, have often been correlated with longer wait times or service reductions such as field office closures.
Without the staff needed to serve claimants, the SSA has responded with gimmicks and half measures. For example, when the number of employees staffing the national hotline dropped by 13 percent, the agency required field office staff to respond to calls to the national 1-800 number. This meant pulling those staffers away from the jobs they were trained to do amid a misguided broader effort by the SSA to reassign its way out of understaffing. Meanwhile, the agency misleadingly changed the information it reports on call wait times, such as removing information on wait times for a callback. According to internal documents acquired by NextGov, the SSA aspires to cut field office visits by 50 percent for fiscal year 2026 compared with fiscal year 2025—a drop of more than 15 million visits. Fewer visits means reducing access to in-person services older adults, disabled people, and children need.
Fulfilling the solemn promise of Social Security requires investing in and supporting the agency that makes those benefits possible, not draining it of essential talent and capacity. But instead of strengthening Social Security, the Trump administration has overseen the largest one-year drop in SSA staff in agency history, combining threats of layoffs and reassignments with financial incentives to employees who retire or resign. Without the experienced, trained staff the agency needs, claimants, including older adults and disabled people, are paying the price.
*Author’s note: Author’s calculations are based on data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.