According to former agency commissioner Martin O’Malley, beneficiaries can anticipate a lag in service and may want to start setting money aside to help pay the bills as a result of impending personnel cuts at the Social Security Administration.
As part of a “massive” restructure revealed late Thursday, the SSA stated Friday afternoon that it plans to lower its regional-office structure and employment levels from 57,000 to 50,000.
SSA stated that “rumor of a 50% reduction is false.” However, several press sources suggested that staffing cuts could reach 30,000 positions, or half of the agency’s workforce.
The cut comes as the new Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, allegedly slashed waste in the federal government.
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During a press call on Friday, just before the agency’s most recent announcement, O’Malley, who was SSA commissioner from 2023 to 2024, stated that the agency was already functioning with staffing at a record 50-year-low. He cautioned that the cuts will affect customer service and possibly perks as well.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the SSA. However, since it began disbursing payments on a monthly basis in 1940, the agency has never missed a payment.
“If you’re dependent on Social Security or Disability, I know it is hard especially if you are totally dependent, but anticipate service interruptions and very likely interruptions of benefits,” O’Malley stated. “Put away some money to deal with the interruptions.”
“There’s no crystal ball if it is a month or only affects a certain group of beneficiaries,” he stated. “No one can really tell.”
“I understand that being entirely dependent on Social Security or Disability is difficult, but be prepared for service outages and most likely benefit suspensions. Set aside some cash to cover the disruptions. Former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley
He warned those who haven’t applied for assistance yet to anticipate delays as well. Even though people can apply online, some people need in-person customer support, particularly if their circumstances are complicated. Those who are changing their filing status, such as after losing a spouse, are also subject to this rule.
Additionally, the Social Security Administration announced on Friday that it will cut the number of regional offices from ten to four.
“These steps prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, reducing non-mission-critical work, and potential reassignment of employees to customer-service positions,” the agency stated in a statement. Finding efficiencies and other ways to cut expenses across all spending categories, including contractor and information technology spending, is another way to support this aim. SSA is dedicated to making sure that this strategy improves the way Social Security benefits are provided.
Critics contend that more workers, not fewer, are needed for Social Security to be effective. Customers will encounter delays while phoning the agency because there will be fewer staff members available to assist applications and beneficiaries.
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Customer call wait times decreased significantly during his tenure, according to O’Malley, from a peak of 42.5 minutes to a low of 11.5 minutes between November 2023 and September 2024. As of right now, they stand at roughly thirty minutes, according to the agency’s online performance report.
The past few weeks have been turbulent for Social Security. The acting commissioner of the agency resigned earlier this month after refusing to give DOGE access to data. Additionally, two SSA offices were recently closed: the Office of Transformation and the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity.
According to O’Malley, the Social Security Administration is “being driven to the first interruption of benefits in 90 years,” which did not occur even during World War II. He claimed that this will happen as a result of the Trump administration’s “voracious appetite for dismantling this agency.”
