New Report: Social Security Administration Field Offices Lost An Estimated 20% of Staff This Year

August 08, 2025

New Report: Social Security Administration Field Offices Lost An Estimated 20% of Staff This Year

New reporting from Axios detailing the full extent of the Trump Administration’s workforce cuts in Social Security Administration field offices was published Thursday and shows how this is affecting Americans across the country.

Axios analyzed a new report “Social Security’s Staffing Crisis” by the Strategic Organizing Center that compared staffing levels from March 2024 and March 2025. It found that the staff cuts implemented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency exacerbated already low SSA staffing levels at 1,200 field offices. More than 1,000 workers accepted DOGE “buyouts” and another 1,000 workers have been reassigned from field offices to answer customer service calls to the national 1-800 number.

“When it takes too long to get your benefits into your bank account after you file because of the understaffing situation, you’re going months and months without needed income that was promised to you because you paid in your whole life,” says Jessica LaPointe, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents about 25,000 Social Security Administration employees.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty created by the Administration’s disinformation and changes at the SSA have put more demands on the agency with more Americans visiting field offices and an 18 percent increase in benefit claims. SSA workers report that the influx of in person visitors combined with reduced office staffing has resulted in longer appointment wait times and walk-in visitors being turned away. Beneficiaries have to wait an average of 35 days for an in person appointment, as of July 2025.

“This new data reminds us that DOGE workforce cuts have caused massive damage and made it harder for Social Security beneficiaries to get the benefits they have earned. We need more people at SSA answering the phones and staffing field offices, not fewer,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “Congress must take action to demand that Social Security field offices are fully staffed.”