Trump’s Social Security Administration to cut thousands of jobs : NPR

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced Friday it aims to cut approximately 7,000 jobs in line with an executive order from President Trump to broadly cut federal workers.

The planned employment cuts raise concerns for tens of millions of Americans about staffing agencies that support retirement benefits and disability and survivor benefits.

“Agencies are planning to reduce the size of their bloated workforce and organizational structures, with a focus on capabilities and employees that do not directly provide mission-critical services,” SSA said. News Release Friday afternoon. “Social Security has recently set staffing targets of 50,000 people from the current level of around 57,000 employees.”

Advocates have plagued agents for years, with the current staffing now already at their lowest low in about 50 years.

A number of senior staff left SSA ahead of the wider cuts that loomed. This includes at least five out of eight in the influential roles of community committee members.

“The SSA operates in a local structure consisting of 10 offices, which is no longer sustainable,” a news release on Friday said. “The agency will reduce the regional structure of all agency components to four regions.”

Senior SSA sources said morale at the agency is very low as staff are crying at the meeting and managers are trying to reassure employees during the great uncertainty.

“This will cause the public to suffer badly,” the source wrote to NPR. “Local field offices are closed, hold times increase, checks do not arrive, or if the disability hearing is too late, you will be sick, hungry or die.”

“Hopefully, the council will be wary of the massive resignation of local committee members and begin asking questions,” the source concluded.

Rich Couture – a spokesman for the AFGE SSA General Committee, which represents around 42,000 Social Security workers – told NPR that “Afge is steadfast against massive layoffs of workers, whether on the frontline or the support staff.” Frontline workers directly support beneficiaries, with the number increasing by 10,000 every day, he said.

“SSA is at the lowest staffing level in 50 years, caring for more Americans than ever before,” Couture said in a statement. “We need to maintain frontline workers who serve our people directly and provide critical support to the frontlines. Ultimately, we need to hurt the public and undermine the provision of Social Security benefits.”

I have Trump I said His social security is “untouchable” as he continues to make drastic cuts to the federal government.

The agency’s news release said the planned reorganization would “prioritize customer service.” “SSA is committed to ensuring that this plan has a positive effect on the delivery of Social Security services.”

Friday announcements from SSA continued guidance In line with the February 11 executive order from the Trump administration from federal agencies to develop plans to eliminate Trump’s massive positions.

New Leadership raises new concerns at SSA

Until now, the SSA has largely spared from efforts overseen primarily by billionaire Elon Musk. It includes a Federal Employment Freeze And the recent firing of most new workers.

New leadership at the agency has implemented more targeted changes. closure That civil rights and equal opportunity job.

Changes to social security that could affect profits are usually considered political responsibility. Social security remains One of the most popular government programsand that’s how most Americans prepare for retirement.

To that end, Trump and Republican Congress leaders have vowed to protect Social Security from planned cuts in government spending.

But last week or so, the agency has faced many of the same confusion and confusion experienced by other federal departments. Additionally, changes to agents have led to concerns among employees and cybersecurity experts regarding the protection of sensitive records.

Michelle King, the former agent of the agency, was recently replaced. collision With Musk’s government efficiency companions who sought access to sensitive personal data held by institutions. That’s according to a senior SSA official who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity. King has not responded to NPR’s request for comment.

According to SSA officials, King was replaced by Leland Dudeck, who had been researched internally before being promoted.

Protecting sensitive data is one of the biggest concerns for SSA employees.

“SSA is incredibly risk averse, and for good reason,” an SSA official said. “The data we house is intimate and comprehensive. Every US man, woman, and child (living, dead) has social security numbers and records for work, income, tax, disability, and civil relations. And Doge has access to everything.”

SSA’s servers are vast, complex and old-fashioned, processing billions of data points a day, and often use programming languages ​​that most people know well. These systems are already under constant attack by digital enemies around the world, creating constant challenges for those tasked with protecting their systems.

The engineers working with DOGE have given the necessary training to protect federal government records, nor does the source say specific agency-level training to work with each department’s own systems. The lawmakers have it It’s already beginning to grow Alarms regarding cybersecurity concerns regarding access to Doge’s federal systems; Legal Case Doge access is currently underway.

Musk says he’s trying to protect Social Security – but Parrot claims unfounded

The mask said On social media His goal is not to cut Social Security benefits, but to “stop the extreme levels of fraud.” [SSA] Keep it solvent and protect honest American social security checks. ”

Musk does not provide evidence of his claims of “extreme level of fraud.” He points out recipients of the SSA database and has been listed incredibly for over 100 years.

But a 2023 Report The inspector’s agency’s office said there were people over 100 Social Security figures over 100, and there was no information about deaths in the system, and “currently, 18.9 million figure holders have not currently received SSA payments.”

Deputy Committee Member Dudeck himself Knockdown There is also a claim to masks.

Advocates are complaining of long-term issues benefiting from disability

And now, agents are preparing to cut their workforce drastically.

Charles Hall, a lawyer representing claimants in particular since 1979, in particular, with social security disability claimants, said the issue of institutional staffing is a lasting issue for those seeking benefits.

“The disability claims have been gradually affected by the lack of staffing in Social Security, literally for at least 20 years,” he said. “That’s certainly become more and more of a problem.”

Max Lichtman, president and CEO of the National Committee on Maintaining Social Security and Medicare, said the process of obtaining disability benefits, especially is “very tedious and difficult to navigate,” and over the past few years “waiting for around 10,000 claimants who have sued benefits, waiting for their claim.”

Hall said the technology improvements haven’t yet covered this increase in workload. As the claims of obstacles are made on paper and labor intensive, technology is not sufficient to solve problems.

“We need a lot of talent,” Hall said. “This is much more labor-intensive than people imagined… They only think about it from a retirement benefit perspective, but relatively simple, but other workloads become rather complicated.”

Richman said wait times for assistance from agency staff would only worsen if the Trump administration cut its workforce deeply. He said Americans deserve access to those benefits as they pay Social Security through payroll taxes.

“I think we really should see that through another lens and another lens, through what’s going on with the federal government and what’s going on with the downsizing,” he said.