Social Security Needs Full Staffing — Not a Scheme Destined to Fail

The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, in response to the Social Security Administration’s reported plans for a nationwide system:

“Before Donald Trump was elected in 2024, the number of Social Security beneficiaries was at an all-time high, while staffing to administer our earned Social Security benefits was at a fifty-year low. So how did the Trump administration respond? It forced out thousands of the Social Security Administration’s most experienced employees.

Scrambling to address this self-inflicted wound, the administration has announced plans to cut field offices in half and is rushing out a new way of dealing with workload that is designed to fail. If implemented, it will have catastrophic consequences for Social Security beneficiaries, and the public more generally.

Essentially, it would mean that someone who needs help with their Social Security could get directed to a SSA staffer across the country, instead of at their local field office. For example, someone in Richmond, Virginia seeking to claim survivor benefits after the loss of a loved one might be helped by someone in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Once the claim is initiated, if there is suspicion that you may not be who you say you are, and you are asked to come into an office and prove your identity, must you fly to New Orleans? Must someone who has not worked on your case take it over? Must you start the application process all over again?

This plan is massively inefficient and will create numerous problems, including:

1. Social Security often interacts with state laws. For example, eligibility for Social Security spousal benefits can depend on how a state treats common law marriages. The same with the need to understand worker compensation laws, which differ in every state.
   
   Already overworked SSA staffers can’t realistically become experts in the laws of all 50 states. Is the plan to rely on artificial intelligence rather than a trained civil servant who has been processing claims in their community for decades?
   
2. The law requires the public to provide original documents for certain claims, not just uploaded or xeroxed copies. To change this would require an act of Congress. Moreover, the documents, like green cards or driver’s licenses, are not ones that people can easily mail and be without for even a day. How will that work if the staffer handling the case is across the country?
   
3. If people have difficulties resolving Social Security issues, they may contact their member of Congress for help. Constituent services staffers are trained to deal with the local SSA office, and would have a far harder time helping resolve cases that are being handled across the country.

A nationwide system might have superficial appeal and sound efficient to someone who has to google what Social Security is. The reality is that field offices have been the backbone of our successful Social Security system for almost a century. They are part of our communities.

The reason for this poorly thought-through idea seems to be the self-inflicted problem of an understaffed agency. There’s a much better solution: Reverse last year’s cuts and fully staff our Social Security field offices.”