Lee Dudek, Social Security's acting commissioner, issued a statement last week contesting what he called “false” media reports about the closure of Social Security field offices where individuals go to file benefit applications and take related actions.
“Since Jan. 1, 2025, the agency has not permanently closed or announced the permanent closure of any local field office,” the statement read.
While the number of field offices may not fall dramatically this year, as some observers have feared, service strains are still a big possibility for Social Security beneficiaries. The big cuts in staffing and a significant reduction and realignment of regional offices that handle complex escalation cases could leave the agency unable to uphold its mission.
That assessment was shared this week by two Social Security experts: Marcia Mantell, the founder and president of Mantell Retirement Consulting Inc., and Jason Fichtner, the former chief economist for the Social Security Administration. Both told ThinkAdvisor that the SSA’s public messaging has been confusing in recent months, as has the information shared by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
“I think we’re all a bit confused as to what is going on at SSA right now,” Fichtner said. “From what I can tell, SSA continues to walk back from some statements that were made, either by SSA officials, DOGE employees or media reports.”
Relying only on SSA’s public statements, the agency has not announced field office closures, Fichtner said.
“However, if enough staff take early retirement, quit or are let go, then it does call into question whether SSA will have adequate staffing for the field offices, or to be able to adequately staff the 1-800 number,” he added. “I am very concerned that customer service is going to be negatively impacted by these proposed staffing and organizational changes.”
Uncertainty Mounts
Mantell said the uncertainty is "eroding confidence" in the agency.
“The SSA, according to its own data, has about 1,200 field offices across the country," she added. "On its website, the Elon Musk-led DOGE lists 47 SSA offices which are set to be closed across the U.S., many of which are concentrated in the South and the Southeast.”
This is in apparent contradiction with Dudek’s statement, Mantell noted. According to what an agency spokesperson told The Associated Press earlier this month, she added, a majority of the offices that will not have their leases renewed were used for in-person hearings, but these are being phased out as the SSA focuses on virtual hearings.
“The swirl and chaos are impressive,” Mantell said. "This certainly is not ‘transparent,’ and the backtracking is making my head spin.”
What has not been contested, she observed, is the reduction and realignment of SSA’s regional offices from 10 to four.
“People don’t go in [to these offices], but rather these are the escalation centers where the local field offices can send upstream cases that are complicated,” Mantell said. “Most folks expect the [wait] to solve problems, review appeals and handle more complex situations will increase significantly — both due to the closure of the specialty offices as well as retiring folks and fired workers.”
It also remains to be seen what long-term effects could arise from plans to close several internal administrative offices, including the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation.
Wait Times Are High and Could Increase
Adequately staffed and funded call centers could theoretically pick up at least some slack in the system, Fichtner pointed out, but that doesn’t seem likely to him. This is despite the pledge made last week by President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the SSA, Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. In his opening remarks and while responding to committee questions, Bisignano suggested that technology and process improvements could improve call center wait times to "less than a minute" while driving SSA's already low claims processing error rates "5 decimal points to the right."
“The SSA’s own 1-800 number metrics show that the average wait time, though down in February, has been increasing since September 2024,” Fichtner observed. “And the percentage of callers that reach a person is near a two-year low. I can’t imagine that these performances metrics will improve with reduced staffing.”
Credit: Shutterstock
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.