On Thursday, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced it would begin implementing “significant workforce reductions” which it described as part of an “agencywide organizational restructuring.”
How significant? According to the Associated Press, the cuts could reduce the agency’s workforce by 50% at a time when 72.5 million Americans are receiving benefits.
“The agency sent out a news release outlining plans for ‘significant workforce reductions,’ employee reassignments from ‘non-mission critical positions to mission critical direct service positions,’ and an offer of voluntary separation agreements. The agency said in its letter to workers that reassignments ‘may be involuntary and may require retraining for new workloads.'”
Such a dramatic reduction in the SSA workforce would be a big mistake, according to the agency’s former administrator, Martin O’Malley, who told a Congressional committee just last year that SSA would serve 7 million more beneficiaries with 7,000 fewer staffers in Fiscal Year 2025. O’Malley warned that SSA cannot continue “doing more with less.”
Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, said the staff reductions could “deny many Americans access to their hard-earned Social Security benefits.”
“The Social Security Administration is already chronically understaffed,” Altman added. “Now the Trump Administration wants to demolish it.”
Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at The Urban Institute, echoed Altman’s concerns.
“It is not clear how many SSA’s staff will be cut. And reductions to Social Security operations surely will get pushback from many members of Congress, even some Republicans. But the real victims to cuts to an already short-staffed Social Security Administration inevitably will be those who rely on its benefits.”
Republicans have long wanted to cut Social Security to the bone, with some in the party even suggesting the program’s trust fund should either be tied to the stock market or eliminated entirely. And now they may get their wish if only because staffing shortages will make it almost impossible for Americans to file for benefits or inquire about delayed payments.
Social Security is a lifeline for tens of millions of Americans. But it may soon be little more than a broken promise.
