How the Social Security Administration Is Coping with Rapid Change

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has undergone some significant changes since President Trump took office in January, impacting the nearly 70 million Americans who receive some form of benefits.

New rules and policies have been introduced and cutbacks have been made by the Trump administration and DOGE. The changes are intended to update the Social Security system and eliminate waste, but the process of implementing these changes has caused disruption and uncertainty.

The SSA was already under a hiring freeze and understaffed when it was asked to implement the new Social Security Fairness Act at the start of the year. Despite receiving no additional funds or manpower, the SSA was asked to carry out the calculations to determine the back payments and monthly increases for over 3 million people, even before DOGE arrived to streamline processes and eliminate fraud and waste.

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Since then, the changes and developments have been building. Here's a look at some of the changes that are underway in 2025.

Americans were already insecure about their retirements

People close to retirement age didn't need any more reasons to be concerned about the stability of the Social Security system with insolvency coming closer every year with no plan or push by elected officials in Washington to shore up the Social Security trust fund. Some people are spooked enough by the situation that they have decided to apply for benefits earlier than planned, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Potential beneficiaries are worried about the health of the main Social Security trust fund that is projected to be depleted by 2033. A majority of those surveyed by Bankrate in a 2024 survey stated that they were concerned about receiving their promised benefits if the fund does run out of money, including 73% of non-retired and 71% of those already retired.

But the anxiety isn’t solely because the trust fund is less than a decade from paying reduced benefits. Americans are generally concerned about their money running out during their retired years.

In fact, 64% of people are more worried about going broke in retirement than dying, according to a recent study by Allianz Life. Among those surveyed, 43% cited “Social Security not providing as much financial support as they need” as a factor contributing to their fear of running out of money.

Changes at the SSA and the push to move people to use more online services

The pace of change at the SSA has been hectic and not without hiccups. The drive to streamline processes to reduce expenses and fraud has resulted in a push to move more Social Security transactions online to be handled through my Social Security accounts. While this move is in line with other market trends to shrink in-person services, the SSA provides vital services to beneficiaries, not customers.

Let’s look at three changes that have been rolled out since the start of the Trump administration.

Ending paper checks for Social Security benefits. As part of the drive to lower the cost of government and reduce fraud, President Trump signed in March an Executive Order “Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account” that will curtail the use of paper checks by the federal government. Currently, about 485,766 beneficiaries receive their funds via a paper check. So far, there has been no change to these plans and because the order included exceptions for those that don’t have access to a bank, it has largely escaped the criticism that other measures have encountered.

Stricter identity verification measures. On March 18, the SSA announced its intention to end phone services that allowed beneficiaries to change their direct deposit information and file new benefit claims. While these services would continue to be available through my Social Security accounts, those who cannot use an online account would have to complete those tasks in-person.

What happened? First, the SSA delayed the implementation of the new ID verifications and discontinuance of phone services for two weeks pushing the date from March 31 to April 14. The SSA also backtracked and decided to allow individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to complete their claim entirely over the telephone without the need to come into an office.

More changes were still to come. On April 14, the SSA announced a new anti-fraud technology that enables the “SSA to identify suspicious activity in telephone claims” and “allow individuals to complete all claim types via telephone.” And that’s great news for those needing to file a new claim; people wishing to update their direct deposit information would have to adjust again to a new process.

As of April 28, anyone needing to change their direct deposit information could do so by phone, but would need to provide a PIN to the representative over the phone to verify their identity. You need a my Social Security account to retrieve the PIN number. This means anyone not able or willing to use an online account would need to visit a local office in-person.

Changes to recovery of Social Security overpayments. Previously, beneficiaries saw their monthly checks garnished by 100% until SSA was able to fully recover accidental overpayments. But the hardships caused for some Social Security recipients as a result of this resulted in the Biden Administration reducing the repayments to 10% of a beneficiary's monthly benefit, or $10, whichever was greater.

On March 7, under Trump, the SSA announced it would reinstate the previous policy of garnishing 100% of benefits until the overpayment was repaid. This change was met with resistance citing evidence that some beneficiaries were left homeless by this policy before it was changed. As a result, the SSA changed course on April 25.

In an emergency message, the SSA said it was reducing the overpayment garnishment rate to 50%, down from 100%, if the beneficiary does not request reconsideration, a waiver, or negotiate a lower repayment rate.

As KKR said in reference to the last minute change to the repayment of overpayments: "The partial reversal is another twist in the Trump administration’s tumultuous approach to Social Security, which has included staff cuts and the acting commissioner’s threat, which has since been withdrawn, to essentially shut down the agency.

The SSA touts the accomplishments of the President's first 100 days

The SSA issued a press release on April 29 to show where they have made progress. Acting commissioner Leland Dudeck cited the acceleration of the retroactive payments and monthly increases that were implemented in March (as a result of the Social Security Fairness Act), which was far sooner than the original estimate of up to a year.

The SSA also made strides in transparency by "publishing on SSA’s website key performance data previously available only to SSA employees." You can now see wait times for 800 calls and claims processing times for retirement, survivor, and Medicare benefits and disability claims.

The other successes are harder to gauge as those are changes that are behind the scenes. The SSA says it is upgrading the telecommunications platform to improve phone service and has "migrated over 350 offices in the Southeast and Northeast regions." They are expanding "partnerships within the Health IT program, which facilitates electronic data exchanges for faster disability determinations" to speed up claims processing and reduce the "over $500 million dollars to collect medical records for applicants."

Moves to reduce the workforce at the SSA and the consolidation and closing of some SSA hearing offices, have caused concern that the already understaffed agency would disrupt benefit payments and the processing of new claims.

What's next?

DOGE is still at work at the SSA, although their push to get access to SSA data has been throttled and limited by a preliminary injunction. The injunction requires DOGE employees to undergo background checks and receive training that all SSA employees undergo before granting them access to sensitive data. The Trump administration has filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court regarding the ruling and DOGE's access to information. The issue remains in flux.

In other developments, the nominee for Social Security commissioner, Frank Bisignano, will finally be voted on by the full senate on May 6.

It's possible that the manner and pace of change at the SSA will be impacted by the new commissioner, if confirmed, who has extensive experience with payment processing in customer facing businesses; he was CEO at Finserv before his nomination.

If you want to stay on top of developments at the SSA, I recommend checking the SSA Communications Corner for press releases and checking our live Social Security blog regularly.

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