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 The organizational structure at Headquarters also is outdated and inefficient.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.
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DG
The two-headed monster Elump doesn’t know sh** about what is “bloated”. It needs to look in the mirror fire its own bloated ass
DG
MAGA wording. Thanks a lot. Social Security will now become MORE inefficient
Carlos J.
Will these personnel cuts delay payments to retired people?
Paul A.
Can the term “mission critical” be more precisely defined by position or years of experience at SSA? Are you referring to Claims Representatives? Service Representatives? Technical Experts in field offices? Office managers? Technical support? Help desk staff? I believe it would be more effective and efficient to outline the specific intentions rather than the fuzzy, undefined approach/strategy that is currently limited to this public facing document.
Also, if you would explain why or how aspects of the SSA are currently unsustainable, ineffective, insufficient, redundant, outdated, etc., that would be helpful in understanding the process. It would also go far to assuage concern that the high quality of customer service and efficiency will not be compromised.
Thank you in advance for your thoughtful and informative reply.
David F.
Inspectors General office was started in 1976 to address fraud, waste and abuse. The office requires the IG to be non-partisan and independent of the executive branch. So if SSA was guilty of fraud, waste and abuse and had a bloated workforce why have we not heard anything from the IG’s? Why does it take up to 2hrs. waiting to speak to a knowledgeable person? Why has my local office stopped allowing walk-ins?
I believe there is fraud, waste and abuse in this administration however it’s mostly confined to the White House.
Brad L.
“Bloated workforce”? What a slam to hard working Americans employed with Social Security. You (leadership under Trump) should be ashamed and embarassed.
Gerald T.
This post is just pablum without any specifics as to local office staffing and closures.
Eric
For heaven’s sakes, automate, automate, automate. We do it in the private sector all the time. We do more with less in the private sector all the time! We complain about it all the time. “this is my job, not what I was hired to do, they don’t pay me enough “. But at the end of the day, if I don’t like it, it is up to me to find something else.
Government jobs have no incentive to do more than required, to figure out efficient ways to do things, just hire more people is always the first answer. Well, time to reset.
Roger W.
Will WEP-GPO payments be affected by SSA Staff cuts??
Diane
Reducing expenditures for the benefit of future retirees is the way to go.