April 24, 2026

New Report Confirms Steep Decline in Social Security Administration Staffing Levels

The number of staff members working at the Social Security Administration (SSA) has dropped precipitously since the beginning of last year, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

More than 57,000 SSA workers – an already historically low number – were on staff at the end of January 2025. Only about 49,000 people were working at the SSA in February. The Administration cut about 7,000 workers last year and scrambled to reassign remaining staff to answer customer service calls to keep wait times from increasing. But this has caused unprocessed claims to pile up. In March, processing centers reported a backlog of six million cases while field offices reported a backlog of 12 million cases.

Beneficiaries in several states will also find it harder to visit SSA offices in person, as the agency is temporarily closing field offices in West Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Northern Mariana Islands, Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan and Montana. Agency leaders are encouraging beneficiaries to use the SSA website or call the 1-800 customer service number if they need assistance.

“Americans earned their Social Security benefits with each paycheck. They should be able to expect an efficient and reliably run Social Security Administration,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “Once again, we implore Congress to pass legislation, including Rep. John Larson’s (CT) bill, the Keeping Our Field Offices Open Act (H.R. 1876), to require a fully staffed SSA.”