Yves here. While Trump’s epic disruptions, from the on again, off for now attack on Iran, his demand to annex Greenland, his threat to prosecute Fed chair Jerome Powell and ICE brown-shirting in Minneapolis dominate the headline, with cons like credit card relief also getting strong media play, Trump has also done a great deal of below-the-water-line damage to key institutions and policies, and those consequences continue to pay out. Here we have an update on the DOGE-initiated damage to the Social Security Administration.
Sadly, the remedy suggested here is for Democrats to Do Something. Good luck with that. It will take a lot more constituent howling for that to happen. So if you are afflicted by the deliberate wrecking of Social Security Administration operations, or have realistic expectations that that is coming soon, you need to complain early and often to your Congresscritters.
By Martin Burns, a former congressional aide, polling analyst, journalist, and lobbyist whose work has been published by The Hill, Irish Central, and the Byline Times and Mary Liz Burns, financial education consultant and content creator focusing on personal finance topics including retirement decisions, maximizing Social Security, and managing debt. Originally published at Common Dreams
There is no part of the federal government that Americans depend on more than the Social Security Administration. It is the agency that is charged with administering the earned benefits of millions. Unfortunately, after one year into President Donald Trump’s second term, SSA is in disarray. The Washington Post recently took an in-depth look at the SSA and reported among other things that:
Long-strained customer services at Social Security have become worse by many key measures since President Donald Trump began his second term, agency data and interviews show, as thousands of employees were fired or quit, and hasty policy changes and reassignments left inexperienced staff to handle the aftermath.
Exaggerated claims of fraud, for example, have led to new roadblocks for elderly beneficiaries, disabled people, and legal immigrants, who are now required to complete some transactions in person or online rather than by phone. Even so, the number of calls to the agency for the year hit 93 million as of late September—a six-year high, data shows.
SSA officials are likely to respond to the Washington Post story by pointing out that a recent SSA inspector general argued that SSA has made major improvements. Fox News reported that:
The inspector general’s report concluded that SSA’s telephone performance improved during fiscal year 2025 largely because of operational changes, including the rollout of a new cloud-based telecommunications platform, expanded automation, and staffing realignments. The platform, implemented in August 2024, allowed SSA to increase call capacity, expand self-service options, and monitor performance in real time, according to the report.
There is one catch with the inspector general’s report, and, to paraphrase Joseph Heller, it is one heck of a catch. This summer SSA changed “the type of data it reports publicly, removing information like callback wait times.” SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told members of Congress over the summer that SSA changed the metrics because reporting the wait times might discourage people from calling the agency. Yes, you read that correctly. So, rather than fixing the problem SSA decided to not share the data. This might be a solution to a public relations problem, but it is not going to help beneficiaries in the slightest.
There is no doubt about the fact that 2025 was a tumultuous time for SSA. The year began with Elon Musk, the then head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme; and, in an address to Congress in January President Trump said that there were “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” in Social Security and that people up to 160 years old were receiving Social Security benefits. None of these accusations, of course, proved to be true. While Trump and Musk’s spurious claims have faded away, the damage they have done to SSA lingers on.
The current congressional leadership has shown zero interest in exercising any oversight responsibility on any issue foreign or domestic. Congress’ lack of interest or will to scrutinize the Trump administration led Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner to ask, “Is congressional oversight dead? Where does this end? If none of my Republican colleagues raises an issue, does this mean we are ceding all oversight?”
While they are not in the majority, Democrats on Capitol Hill are not powerless. They can still hold hearings of their own. These hearings would not be part of the legislative process. They would however give Democrats the platform they need to speak up for the American people. There is good news here for those who care about Social Security. The ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security is Rep. John Larson of Connecticut who has fought for years to protect Social Security. Larson is the perfect person to shine a light on the current state of affairs at SSA.
If Republicans on Capitol Hill are not interested in exercising their duty to provide oversight, Democrats must step up to the plate. Seventy-five million Social Security beneficiaries are counting on them to protect their earned benefits.
Unless I have entered terminal decline, I theorize that the implementation of ” cloud-based telecommunications platform, expanded automation, and staffing realignments” is a plan to degrade efficiency, not improve it.
Finally, an actual, on the ground example of the Neoliberalism Rule #2: Go Die. [We can help you with that problem! We’re Social Security! (For some definition of “Social.”)]
Nobody wants to do customer service, it’s boring. We hate our customers. That’s why every customer service line you call immediately starts chirping “visit our website” when the phone picks up. They want to force us to not be able to interact with humans at all and to be stuck with a barely functional website that doesn’t actually answer your questions or help with the problem you need assistance with. If you persist with the phone line instead of going to their website you then get the “emergency? hang up and dial 911”, “all of our menu options have recently changed”, and “we’re experiencing an unusually high call volume” malarkey, which are all basically saying “we cut staff to inadequate levels so our VPs could get bigger bonuses”. So of course automation and cloud-based silver bullet tech is degrading the experience for everyone–by design.
If I were in Congress I would immediately introduce a bill to (1) forbid any company or government agency from forcing citizens to use the internet for interactions or charging them extra for phone or postal methods, (2) allow any citizen to opt out of having a company or agency make their personal information available, to themselves or anyone else, via the internet, and (3) make any company or agency that has a data breach in which an opt-out person’s information was exposed liable to pay $100,000 to each person compromised for each incident. Then you might see serious effort put into data security and privacy practices, and fewer shortcuts to degrading service in the name of efficiency.
Being a stubborn cuss, I tend to persist until I hear a real voice on the line — and almost always get excellent, helpful service from someone who is relieved to be treated like a fellow human being. I can tell they are surprised and relieved not to be blamed and yelled at.
Human interaction, worth the wait.
Terran humans, still the “go to” problem solvers.
I just keep pounding the ” Zero” button until I get a live human.
My application for benefits has been in limbo since September. When I reach out to customer service, the response boils down to, don’t call us, we’ll call you. Heckuva job Muskie.
Interesting. Mine sailed right through and I got my first payment deposited into my account at the Uruguay National Bank. We work through an office in Argentina and they seem to do solid work.
I made and kept a phone appointment (took 4 months to get the appointment) a few years ago to request switching from survivor to my own benefits. I was advised to wait a year or so when the numbers would work out best. Now I am too scared of my account being bungled into a black hole to even try contacting the agency.
The DNC cares nothing about any citizen of the United States unless they are wealthy donors/bribers.
It wasn’t necessary for my mother to claim my father’s SS benefits after he died, we got a letter in the mail a week or two later explaining what was done. I thought for sure she’d need to call.
Not having to deal with this was nice, at least. There’s been five weeks and counting of daily estate nightmare work to deal with. The latest episode, you can’t deposit checks in the name of someone that is dead at Wells Fargo into a business checking account. But that money generates 1099s, and must be included in the tax return for 2025.
Oops.
Jason
Since the “someone” you are referring to is the deceased, you avoid the “Oops” by establishing a bank account in the name of the decedent’s estate. This is usually done by the executor or administrator, depending on whether a will exists or not. Wells Fargo surely as done this before.
You should consider working with an attorney to navigate the probate process.
The remedy is usually preceeded by defining the problem. So far the first step seems to be the only step. Years on end of ‘Splainin still doesn’t cook rice…
It don’t “cook rice,” but it sure does fill rice bowls. Ask any “consultant” or “expert.”
If only Rep John Larson (AIPAC) cares as much about social security as he does about genociding Palestinians we will be just fine!
Re watch Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil.” Bear in mind it’s really a documentary.