Union workers at the Social Security Administration want the agency to add 20,000 more employees and expand the agency’s budget to better serve 75 million retired workers and dependents and people with disabilities.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents a total of 820,000 federal government workers, recently called on Congress to restore about $3 billion in funding to the SSA that was lost to budget cuts, and to boost the workforce by as much as 40% from current levels.
Most Read from MarketWatch
“If we cannot attract talent to do the work of the federal government, how are we going to serve the public? It’s going to become increasingly harder, and the public is going to have a harder and harder time accessing these benefits, especially with Social Security benefits that they have paid into,” said Angela Digeronimo, executive vice president of AFGE Council 220, which represents SSA field-office employees.
The SSA’s administrative budget has fallen from 1.2% of benefit outlays in 2017 to 0.86% currently, which represents an annual loss of $3 billion in operating revenue, the union said. In comparison, private insurance companies are funded at roughly 20% of their benefit outlays, meaning that the SSA is deeply underfunded, the union said.
Meanwhile, SSA staffing has declined 14% during President Donald Trump’s second term — from 57,384 in January 2025 down to 49,439 in June 2026 — a net loss of 7,945 employees, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
“We want the American people to understand that it’s not the Social Security worker’s fault that the delays are happening on their benefits and services. We are human beings. We’re doing the best that we can. We’re being treated very poorly. We have been for the last year and a half. We need that to improve,” said Jessica LaPointe, president of AFGE Council 220. “We need more of everything at SSA, not less.”
The SSA said that its proposed budget for fiscal 2027 will allow it to execute its “digital-first agenda and streamline operations.”
“Our hiring efforts this year are aligned with the commissioner’s goal to transform service delivery across all channels by leveraging new technology, implementing process improvements, and updating tools to better serve the public,” the SSA told MarketWatch.
During Trump’s second term in office, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which was headed by Elon Musk, oversaw job cuts, regional-office closures and policy changes at SSA that directed more beneficiaries to go online to get help.
Under Commissioner Frank Bisignano, who was confirmed by the Senate in May 2025, the agency has been pushing technology upgrades in an effort to improve service metrics such as phone wait times and the backlog of disability claims.
The agency said Bisignano has pledged to have “the right level of staffing to ensure Social Security operates at peak efficiency.” It said that people are being served quickly and are able to seek help on the phone, in person or online.
However, the SSA currently does not provide the same detailed, real-time metrics as it did in the past, instead providing only snapshots of its performance, which makes it difficult to verify the improvements, critics said. In addition to his role at the SSA, Bisignano also heads the Internal Revenue Service and is overseeing the rollout of the new “Trump accounts” for children.
“It’s pretty elementary. An organization that’s almost entirely customer-facing trying to serve more people with a 63-year low in staffing is going to have problems. There’s no magic AI wand that can repair the damage done [from the loss of] of almost 10,000 people who had experience and expertise leaving the agency,” said Martin O’Malley, who served as Social Security commissioner under President Joe Biden.
“They’re trying to convince people they’re getting great customer service with the limited metrics they’re releasing. It’s gone from being a model of openness to cherry-picking numbers. They want to tell us they’re serving more customers than ever before without hiccups, but saying an ‘answered call’ is the moment you reach a chatbot is not an answered call,” O’Malley said.
The requests for more staffing and funding are unlikely to be successful, analysts said.
“Those are long shots at best. SSA’s own leadership has not requested additional funding or staffing in its budget request and the commissioner testified that he has sufficient resources. Congress seldom provides more than agencies request. Usually it’s the opposite,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank.
“What I think, in fact, is we have the right amount of staff in the right places,” Bisignano said during a joint hearing in June held by the House Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittees on Social Security and Work & Welfare.
Still, the staffing cutbacks have affected customer service, analysts said.
“With significantly fewer staff stretched across the same number of field offices, there are definitely strains, such as temporary closures and reduced hours in some offices — not always announced. There are also longer average waits for appointments,” Romig said.
Bisignano said the SSA has kept open all 1,200 field offices. Critics, however, said that offices are not adequately staffed and referred to some as “ghost offices,” because while they are technically listed as open, the hours have been curtailed to the point that they are effectively closed.
“SSA understands that they can’t close offices. They aren’t closing them — they’re keeping them open in name only. There are ghost offices where people can’t get service, with no staff, no hours,” said Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works.
“It’s literally a bureaucratic, Kafkaesque nightmare,” Lawson said. “You can’t overstate the impact. Real Americans who earned their benefits are being harmed every day.”
The SSA said that none of its field offices are closed or offering limited service due to staffing issues, and that the changes to the ones listed as closed or with curtailed hours on the Social Security website are not permanent.
“The offices are temporarily closed or providing limited service due to planned renovations, required maintenance, or facilities issues that we are actively working with [General Services Administration] and building owners to resolve,” the agency said. “SSA’s resident stations are located in rural areas and typically have one or two employees assigned to provide in-person services.”
O’Malley said office closures and limited service force beneficiaries to travel greater distances to offices that remain staffed or to try to resolve their problems online — which may not always be possible for complicated questions about benefits.
“If you can’t get your problem addressed online, you’re pretty much out of luck. You can’t see anyone to sort it out,” O’Malley said. “The public’s best bet is to call your congressperson and have them create a case file and lobby on your behalf.”
Got a question about retirement? .
