Social Security staff shortages have led people to wait longer to apply for benefits, replace identification cards, or get questions answered.
More than 30% of Social Security field offices have lost more than 10% of their staff in just one year.
These staffing shortages have led to people having to wait longer to apply for benefits, replace identification cards, or get questions answered, according to a new analysis by the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a nonprofit advocacy organization that partners with unions and workers. The center compared workforce data from March 2024 and March 2025.
The Trump administration announced in February of this year its plan to cut 12% of the Social Security Administration's workforce, or about 7,000 workers, by the end of fiscal year 2025. The SSA said the reductions were an effort to "prioritize customer service."
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) worked to significantly reduce the Social Security workforce, which reportedly included buyouts for about 2,500 employees, with nearly 80% of those being field-office staff.
Social Security field offices are local outposts at which beneficiaries and applicants can get in-person assistance with the program. In the latest numbers available from the Social Security Administration, more than 119,000 people visited field offices each day in 2023.
From March 2024 to March 2025, 46 states and Washington, D.C., experienced a net loss of Social Security field office staff, while two states maintained flat staffing. Nebraska and Alaska were the only states to post growth in their field-office staffing, but they only added a combined total of seven staff members, according to SOC.
The states that experienced the most field-office staff losses were Wyoming (-17%), Montana (-14%), West Virginia (-11%), Hawaii (-11%), and New Mexico (-10%).
Many of the places experiencing large Social Security staffing losses are rural communities or places with a high density of tribal land, which creates for their residents the extra barrier of longer travel time to local offices, along with less access to stable internet or a computer to get online services, which can lead to even more time spent waiting for service, the SOC report said.