DOGE is Targeting Social Security

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, has made headlines since President Donald Trump’s January inauguration by drastically slicing the workforces of many federal government agencies.

Now Musk’s team has set its sights on an already understaffed Social Security Administration (SSA).

DOGE’s first wave of action—closing at least ten local Social Security field offices and eliminating 41 jobs—went largely unnoticed, overshadowed by the mass firings DOGE has instigated in other federal agencies. But now the first wave has become a tsunami.

Recently Social Security announced in a news release that it, “will soon implement agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions. Through these massive reorganizations, offices that perform functions not mandated by statute may be prioritized for reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in staffing.”

The Associated Press reports that, “the Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans who is not authorized to speak publicly. The workforce reduction, according to a second person who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, could be as high as 50%.”

How these cuts will affect the 72.5 million seniors and Americans with job-ending disabilities who rely on their modest Social Security benefits is not yet clear.

But as the Chicago disability attorneys at Nash Disability Law have repeatedly reported for years in this newsletter, the Social Security Administration already suffered from understaffing before the DOGE cuts.

Martin O’Malley, the Social Security Commissioner during the Biden administration, said that earlier funding cuts resulted in “the reduction of SSA staffing to 27-year lows” at a time when there is a “rising tide of the numbers of customers.”

In the late 2010s, it typically took the Social Security Administration 110 to 120 days to process an initial application for disability benefits, according to agency data.

In the first eight months of 2024, the average wait time was 230 days, or more than seven and a half months. It is almost certain that the DOGE layoffs will further hamper the agency’s ability to serve claimants in a timely manner.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump repeatedly said he would protect Social Security, echoing a promise he has made for years.

During a press conference in early February, President Trump was asked if there were any federal programs or agencies that were hands off for DOGE.  “Social Security will not be touched,” Trump answered.

It seems obvious to us that further crippling the SSA’s capacity to serve recipients is almost certain to cause the backlog of more than one million pending initial disability claims to balloon to even higher numbers.

Cuts to the workforce will in effect be a cut in benefits for millions of the most vulnerable Americans.

O’Malley points out that, “the American people through a lifetime of work earn not only these benefits but the customer service necessary to process these benefits.”

“Their money went to that, too.” Trump and Musk, “are going to break the largest, most important social program in America,” O’Malley predicted.

We encourage you to contact your Congressperson. Urge them to fight against these alarming Social Security cuts. You can find your Congress member at this link: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.