Historic Staffing Shortfall Squeezes Social Security Administration

What You Need to Know

Years of underfunding have weakened the SSA's ability to meet public demand for information and support services.
Acting commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi says a budget boost would help to grow SSA staffing levels from a current 25-year low.
If funded appropriately, the president's proposal to expand paid family leave would help, not harm, the SSA, Kijakazi says.

After years of inadequate funding and thanks to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing “great resignation,” the Social Security Administration is facing a 25-year low in the level of staff working to help Americans claim their retirement and disability benefits.

The staffing shortfall, while starting to ease thanks to a hiring push initiated last year, is interfering with the agency’s ability to provide the level of service its leaders and beneficiaries expect.

According to the acting Social Security commissioner, Kilolo Kijakazi, an immediate and substantial additional investment by Congress is needed to fill key vacant positions and bring the SSA to full fighting strength.

If the federal government doesn’t provide more resources to the program for hiring and general administration, Kijakazi warns, Americans are likely to face a more challenging time accessing benefits, especially as the historically large population of baby boomers enters retirement and begins to file claims.

A Stark Warning

Kijakazi shared her warning during an online public policy forum event hosted Tuesday by the Urban Institute, where she previously served as an institute fellow focused on issues related to retirement security and the racial and gender inequities facing U.S. workers and communities.

According to Kijakazi, the Social Security program plays a major role in providing retirement security to all Americans, but the program is especially critical for African Americans and Hispanic Americans. These communities have lower average incomes, she explained, meaning Social Security tends to replace more of their working wages, especially relative to white men.

As such, Kijakazi emphasized, it is of paramount importance for the ongoing pursuit of racial and gender equality in the United States that the Social Security program be put on a healthy financial footing for the long term. It’s also a matter of basic economic stability, she said, given the importance of Social Security benefits to the retirement plans of Americans all across the economic spectrum.

As Kijakazi emphasized, it is essential for Congress to take steps to adequately fund both the Social Security program’s benefit funds and also the Social Security Administration itself. These two issues are often conflated in the eyes of the public, she noted, leading to confusion on the part of taxpayers and consternation on the part of SSA leaders tasked with stewarding the incredibly important retirement income insurance program.

SSA Staffing Shortage

As Kijakazi recalled, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the SSA, like so many other public and private employers, to transition to a digital-first approach to customer service.

Staff for Paid Family Leave?

During the discussion, Kijakazi also pointed out that President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal includes a $225 billion national paid family and medical leave program that would be administered by the SSA.

As Kijakazi explained, the proposal seeks to provide partial wage replacement for workers who take time off to care for a newborn or an ill family member, recover from a health issue, deal with a family member’s military deployment, address domestic violence issues or deal with the death of a loved one.

The plan as articulated in the president’s budget proposal guarantees 12 weeks of paid parental, family, and personal leave by year 10 of the program. It provides workers with two-thirds of average wage replacement per month, up to $4,000. Lowest-wage workers would get pay replaced at 80%, Kijakazi noted.

Kijakazi said the program, if implemented and funded as proposed, would not add to the SSA’s current staffing problems. Instead, the $225 billion in initial funding would be used to create a separate entity within the SSA that would not pull staff away from working on core retirement and disability benefit issues.