Social Security faces thousands more job cuts even with service in tailspin

The Social Security Administration — already reeling from plunging customer service following a rapid downsizing under the Trump administration — is drafting plans to begin layoffs of potentially thousands more employees as soon as next week.

The cuts have been ordered by leaders of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team, the U.S. DOGE Service, which reviewed the agency’s plans to shrink its workforce last week, according to four agency officials familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans. DOGE determined that the 7,000 jobs eliminated since February under acting commissioner Leland Dudek through early retirements, buyouts, resignations and firings were not enough, the officials said.

The DOGE team, which has amassed unprecedented power throughout the federal government, has demanded significantly deeper cuts to ensure that Social Security meets President Donald Trump’s goal to shrink federal agencies, officials said.

Dudek had told the remaining Social Security workforce of about 50,000 in March that he hoped to avoid layoffs known as reductions in force, or RIFs, altogether. But that changed in recent days, when agency leaders were notified that they needed to propose a “more extensive RIF proposal,” one official said.

The Social Security press office did not respond to a request for comment.

The DOGE team did not provide a specific number of jobs that must be eliminated, officials said, but asked for staff reductions to broad areas of operation, including communications, personnel, legislative and congressional affairs, retirement and disability policy, and other “support components.” Also on the list is the information technology department of about 4,000 employees, which is confronting a flurry of website crashes that has shut out customers from accessing their benefit information. Up to 800 people could be laid off in that department, according to one senior official.

“It’s just cut, cut, cut,” the official said. It is unclear whether Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s permanent nominee to run Social Security, would try to halt some of the layoffs after the Senate confirms him as expected, possibly as soon as next week.

Elizabeth Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement: “With a resounding mandate from the American people, President Trump is moving quickly to fulfill his promise of making the federal government more efficient. He has promised to protect Social Security, and every recipient will continue to receive their benefits.”

Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly pledged no cuts to Social Security — a promise that usually extends only to benefit payments. The administration has otherwise moved ahead with dramatic cuts to staffing and closures of offices, moves that have already significantly damaged customer service. DOGE — which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency — and Trump have said they are focused on eliminating fraud, which is a much rarer problem than they have alleged.

The new round of cuts will hit a Social Security workforce that was stretched thin even before Trump took office in January. The agency is set to lose nearly 2,500 employees to buyouts this month just in its network of 1,200 field offices around the country — about a 10 percent reduction.

Dozens of field offices from Clinton, South Carolina, to San Antonio will lose more than a quarter of their staffs, according to recent data published on the Social Security website. The office in Rochester, Minnesota, will lose 40% of its employees; Nevada, Missouri, 57%; Alexandria, Minnesota, 50%; and Minden, Louisiana, 37%. Many of these offices are in rural areas, with the closest Social Security office as far as 100 miles away in some places.

Dudek’s strategy, according to officials, is to reassign as many employees as possible to customer-facing roles from higher-ranking jobs at headquarters in Woodland, Maryland, or at regional offices. Dudek has frequently told his team that he believes the agency has too many employees in support roles with high salaries.

But it is unclear whether those who accept a reassignment will be enough to replenish the departing field staffs, who have years of experience helping customers answer complex questions about Social Security’s retirement and disability benefits, handling initial vetting of disability claims and performing many other services. Field offices have struggled in recent months to serve a surge in customers who are unsettled by policy changes initiated by Dudek and DOGE and concerned that the administration — despite the president’s denials — could eventually reduce their benefits.

“Trump and DOGE are doubling down on their attacks on Social Security, which will cripple rural field offices in communities like Warrenton and La Grande in Oregon,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement, referring to two offices in his district that have already lost employees. “Field offices are already overwhelmed and unstaffed, and deeper cuts to the workforce will guarantee delayed benefits and soaring wait times for Americans who count on Social Security’s earned benefits.”

On Thursday, Social Security employees received an offer from the human resources department for voluntary reassignments to “mission-critical” front-line roles answering phones in call centers, processing claims in field offices and hearing offices, performing quality assurance checks on whether disability claims were properly reviewed and other functions.

“This voluntary reassignment option is a critical opportunity to shape how we deliver essential services and to proactively manage your own career path during this period of organizational change,” read the email, which was obtained by The Washington Post. It was interpreted by many as a warning that declining a transfer could result in a layoff. The email called the offer a “final opportunity … before we make further organizational changes.”

“We are proceeding with plans that may include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in force (RIF),” read the email.

New departures from headquarters and regional offices will come on the heels of an exodus of senior officials across the department since Dudek became acting commissioner in mid-February. Top attorneys with knowledge of complex Social Security laws and regulations have resigned or been fired. Technologists have left who had expertise in the agency’s myriad computer systems and software applications, including the decades-old programming language known as COBOL, which Musk’s team plans to quickly migrate to more modern systems. Executives who tracked customer satisfaction with Social Security services also are gone.

For many employees, a switch to a front-line role would mean a significant demotion that would lead to a lower salary, although they would keep their current salary for up to two years. A reassignment could also mean moving to a job in another state.

“Field offices run very tight,” said Rick Warsinskey, a retired Social Security district manager from Cleveland. “They have to be very efficient. When you get backlogged, the problems cascade and it takes a lot more resources to get people back into shape. We’ve never faced a situation where staffing was this tight.”