If you’ve recently contacted your local Social Security Administration (SSA) office and actually reached a human being on the first try, congratulations! The rest of America’s 70-plus million Social Security beneficiaries, welcome to 2026.
In 2025, the Trump administration cut 12 percent of the SSA workforce, which adds up to about 7,000 employees. Many of them were the frontline workers whose job was to help people like you. Senator Chuck Schumer had called the move out on X and warned that Elon Musk saying that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme” could get worse than just budget cuts.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing for Social Security has gone up by 17 percent compared to the previous year. More people need help, but the remaining SSA staff are overworked. Some employees who usually processed benefits have been answering phones. Others are being trained to cover desks previously held by colleagues who are now fired.
The wait time for in-person appointments has almost doubled compared to a few years ago, according to Julie Krawczyk, director of the Elder Financial Safety Center. Meanwhile, the SSA is actively pushing people to go online. The agency is set to cut field office visits in half; and to achieve this, it has been rolling out AI phone systems, online-only processes and digital ID verification.
Donald Trump created a massive customer service crisis at Social Security.
Mistakes are being made, lines are hours long, offices have no workers, the 1-800 number has record wait times if people can get through at all.
— Social Security Works ❌👑 (@SSWorks) July 7, 2025
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund interviewed 52 attorneys and disability specialists. They found that the move to online services has locked out some of the most vulnerable beneficiaries. If you want to create a mySSA account, you will need to have an email address, a mailing address and biometric facial recognition.
But how can someone with unstable housing, cognitive disabilities or limited internet access manage to do all of this on a regular basis?
One San Francisco attorney told researchers that ID proofing “isn’t possible for most of their clients.” The AI phone system is also being criticised as callers now have to verbally explain why they are calling to an automated system. Even for those callers who can speak and be understood, the system often misinterprets what they say. Only after that can one reach a human.
An SSA spokesperson called the research “biased” and said that there have been improvements already. He said that the disability claim backlog is down over 30 percent since mid-2024, and over 100 million Americans now have online Social Security accounts. Commissioner Frank Bisignano’s vision is a multi-channel agency, and he said callbacks with estimated wait times have been useful.
Go Digital! Many Social Security services are available online — no office visit needed: https://t.co/KH0kHGNTsA pic.twitter.com/t7xqAVZ59p
— Social Security (@SocialSecurity) March 3, 2026
But as the report states, delays in disability benefits can mean health deterioration, loss of housing and more.
So if you need to talk with Social Security right now, call on a day when you have time to spare. If you have an in-person appointment, be patient with the person on the other end, as they are almost certainly doing three jobs at once.
