Need to Call Social Security? Be Ready to Hold

An impatient older woman is waiting on hold on the telephone while sitting at her desk.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you need to call Social Security, expect a long wait to get someone on the line. While the agency says it’s using technology to reduce call times, news reports say phone waits have exploded. An employee union official and an advocacy organization describe chaos at the offices.

The agency says in a press release it has reduced the average speed of answer on its 800 number to 13 minutes, which it says is a 35% reduction compared to this time last year and over a 50% reduction compared to last year’s annual average.

But the agency’s current claims are “not credible,” says Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy organization Social Security Works, “given how many experienced employees have been forced out and all the chaos the Trump administration has created.”

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The Washington Post, citing internal data, reported, “the amount of time that callers who ring the national number wait on hold or in a queue before speaking to an agent has risen. For the last three full months of the Biden administration, callers waited an average of 75 minutes. For the first five months of the Trump administration, callers have waited an average of 93 minutes.”

SSA says new Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano has “a vision to transform the agency into a premier service organization” and “an organization that operates at peak efficiency and delivers outstanding service to every American.”

Others say it’s a facade. Jessica LaPointe, president of Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees, says the agency is transferring staff from overworked field offices to help answer calls to the overwhelmed 800 number. “Without conducting staffing assessments, SSA enticed buyouts of about 2,000 front-line staff on the 800 number and in field offices in March of this year,” she says. “Since January, SSA has driven 7,000 workers — both frontline and support staff — out of the agency. It has gotten so bad that SSA deployed 1,000-2,000 community-based field office staff to the national 800 number in July.”

Social Security spokesman Stephen McGraw told the Washington Post that the redeployment affects 4% of field office staff.

Altman suggests beneficiaries be wary of agency claims of improved call times. “What is known,” she adds, “is that the Trump administration changed the metrics so that the comparisons became unhelpful apples to oranges…. Consequently, Congress and the public must rely on anecdotes, which all point in the same direction: degradation of the service to the public.”

LaPointe says the situation is dire. “By every metric, SSA is in a staffing crisis,” she says. “Leading into January, SSA was at a 50-year low in staffing while serving an all-time high rate of beneficiaries. Technology has never been able to — and I would argue will never be able to — replace the complexity, human compassion and expertise an SSA worker is vetted and trained to provide to the American people.”

The controversy comes on the heels of an email the agency sent to beneficiaries, implying that the new tax law had ended taxes on 90% of Social Security benefits. In reality, the new law provides a temporary, income-based tax deduction rather than a full repeal of Social Security benefit taxes. That deduction boost could, for some, indirectly affect how much Social Security income is subject to tax.

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Retirement Report, our popular monthly periodical that covers key concerns of affluent older Americans who are retired or preparing for retirement. Subscribe for retirement advice that’s right on the money.

Elaine Silvestrini has worked for Kiplinger since 2021, serving as senior retirement editor since 2022. Before that, she had an extensive career as a newspaper and online journalist, primarily covering legal issues at the Tampa Tribune and the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey. In more recent years, she's written for several marketing, legal and financial websites, including Annuity.org and LegalExaminer.com, and the newsletters Auto Insurance Report and Property Insurance Report.