Social Security Announces Workforce and Organization Plans
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: February 28, 2025
Consistent with recent executive orders issued by the White House, the Social Security Administration will continue to implement efficiencies and reduce costs, with a renewed focus on mission critical work for the American people.
The agency plans to reduce the size of its bloated workforce and organizational structure, with a significant focus on functions and employees who do not directly provide mission critical services. Social Security recently set a staffing target of 50,000, down from the current level of approximately 57,000 employees. Rumor of a 50 percent reduction is false.
Initial steps to reduce the workforce included offering a limited number of employees the opportunity to leave the agency under the Deferred Resignation Program and Voluntary Early Retirement (VERA).
Yesterday, the agency announced to all employees that Social Security would soon implement agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions. The announcement includes offering Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) to all employees on a first come first serve basis and expanding VERA to all employees. Both VERA and VSIP require employees to opt in and to separate from the agency by specific dates.
Social Security anticipates that much of the staff reductions needed to reach the target of 50,000 will come from retirement, VSIP, and resignation. Additional reductions will come from reduction-in-force (RIF) actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions. RIF also can include directed reassignments from one position to another position in the agency. Agencies are required to submit their RIF plans to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by March 13, 2025. No date has been set when a RIF might begin after OPM approves the plan.
SSA has operated with a regional structure consisting of 10 offices, which is no longer sustainable. The agency will reduce the regional structure in all agency components down to four regions. The organizational structure at Headquarters also is outdated and inefficient. SSA will now have seven Deputy Commissioner level organizations.
These steps prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, reducing non-mission critical work, and potential reassignment of employees to customer service positions. Also supporting this priority is looking for efficiencies and other opportunities to reduce costs across all spending categories, including information technology and contractor spending. SSA is committed to ensure this plan has a positive effect on the delivery of Social Security services.
Did you find this Information helpful?
About the Author
Social Security Administration
Social Security Administration
Comments
Leave a Comment
Please review our Comment Policy before leaving a comment. For your safety, please do not post Personally Identifiable Information (such as your Social Security Number, address, phone number, email address, bank account number, or birthdate) on our blog.
Miguel P.
I’m not sure how bloated the department is given the long wait times we experience every time we call. I keep hearing how well the department functions but merely weeks after this DOGE spectacle started it has failed me. I was assured that I would get my first check on the 26th just a week before. Three days late I still have not been paid and when I called my local office they are not answering calls.
Brenda G.
Thank you Social Security. With the reorganization I have complete confidence you will continue to deliver the same excellent service to the American people.
Ike W.
Trump and Musk are unfit mentally to perform their duties.
Tom B.
So sorry that you’ve had to drink the Trump koolaid and held hostage to the hostile takeover of government.
May we rise in mass protest.
And yes, I too hesitate to speak up for fear of retribution. But if not now when? If not me who?
Sheila
This is an absolute travesty. There are more people retiring every month than at any other time in history, and you want to reduce the workforce? This is going to impact every single family in America. Are you sure you want to wake this monster?
Jon L.
Will there be reductions in the number of local offices and local staff? Will we have to drive 30 minutes or an hour to get to an office; that could be tough for many seniors. Also, how will the cost savings be used?
Barry
This is not real. It is giving in to
blackmail. You cannot loose that many employees and not effect services and function.
Bruce G.
The assertion that the SSA staff is ‘bloated’ could only come from someone who knows nothing about the agency’s operations. Perhaps there are several areas in need of reorganization, but that should not be dictated by politicians who have such a short sighted view of getting votes. What those pushing for such drastic cuts fail to realize is that a) the agency has been under staffed since the Reagan Administration. Yet the population served by SSA has ballooned. And b) Computers have taken over many tasks. But those are the easiest work of the agency. Essentially computers can process simple retirement or survivor claims where there is proof of age (birth certificate or equivalent) and clear proof of relationship. A computer cannot decide complex relationship issues, including multiple marriages. Nor can it make the medical determination of disability required by law. I spent over 35 years with SSA. Our nemesis was always some politician who could not distinguish the difference between dirt and doodoo.
Beth C.
I’m living on the eastern shore and do not want to travel to Virginia beach for information or help with SS.
mark t.
Thank God for Donald J Trump again. And God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Forever!
Justina
Thanks to Joe Biden for signing this into law, and the hardworking ssa people who work to help resolve our ssa questions.
Good luck trying to get answers in the future, because cutting staff and offices is going to make getting help so much more difficult.