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 The organizational structure at Headquarters also is outdated and inefficient.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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Alice E.
A sad day in our Country. The Trump-Musk Presidency is going to be a fatal blow to our democracy. Thank you to all of the federal employees. You are the backbone of this great USA. I appreciate everything you have done for the citizens that depend on you every day. Keep the faith. Good will always prevail over evil.
Stephen B.
I want my money invested for SSA.
Having just retired 48 years in telecommunications, downsizing and reorganizing has been part of my journey and the evolution in technology. Fortunately not being part of any of the 10K layoffs over the last few years, change is hard but doable.
I fully understand leaving department deleted from operation only to start a new one. There are better methods of operating. Always.
I just want to ensure I receive the money I worked really hard and now want to enjoy what I paid a substantial amount into the SSA.
Good fortune to you all.
Ken D.
Don’t forget, this message is from DOGE and Trump’s new puppets at SS. There is every reason to think this is based on lies and incompetency as that is all DOGE has demonstrated. Yes, downsizing will make it harder to interface with SS, not better as claimed.
Beau
This downsizing of SSA workforce is disturbing. I can see getting rid of duplication; but, the massive reduction in government workforce will in all likelihood hurt everyone.
Denise P.
Yay, change to a broken system! Love the idea of increasing customer service dept with this reorganization! VSIP, VERA, and RIFS are common within the government workforce, so this should not be a surprise to anyone. Tough decisions are made for a better future. Bravo Zulu!
JJ
We need to replace the programs we use. The programs need to help us streamline and reduce the dependence of employees being needed on the intake of initial applications. This would allow us to focus more on other critical pe workloads and customer service with the public
Get rid of attorney direct payment obligations. Make the attorneys chase their own money down from the clients. Staff spends way too much time processing fee agreements etc. and answering phone calls from attorneys asking about fees owed.
And they need to majorly overhaul the ssi program. For example. Income reporting Imagine the irs having to process your tax returns every month. That’s how the ssi program is setup in terms of how we determine proper monthly payments.
I could go on and on and on.
Judy B.
Really? What can I expect for wait times with this reduced service level?
Shirl B.
My condolences not only to the valuable employees of the rumored ‘bloated’ federal agency. Additionally my condolences to the American citizens whom are obviously not valued & will pay the price for this butchering.
Kathy F.
“Bloated workforce”?? That sounds like terminology used by Musk & the awful Trump administration. Social Security would be fully funded if the percentage of salaries subject to SS withholding was greatly increased.
Christine R.
I am disappointed to say the least. I would think that the downsizing would have taken months of planning – but I doubt that has been the case. We were the 13th person in line last week at our ss office and it took us almost 5 hours to get a name change taken care of. Does this sound like there is too much staff???
I just hope that we all don’t get screwed
by this. Millions of Americans will suffer if they cannot get their ss checks.