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 The organizational structure at Headquarters also is outdated and inefficient.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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Gayle
They want to make SS fail so they can privatize it and have some billionaire corporation make more money.
JMDez
Maybe the Biden/Harris admin should have hired 82k SSA employees instead of IRS employees. Goes to show the priority was not SSI receipents. Those need to realize this has been an issue for years, yet nobody cared until this admin started shuffling things around.
Jessica
Amen!
Justina
You might want to look at what happened after they hired at the irs. They were able to collect more than $1 billion owed from wealthy tax payers. This was reported in July. That is why some Rs fought the hirings, and why the irs has now FIRED 6000 employees under trump.
ann t.
This does all Americans a terrible disservice.
Dee W.
I agree with almost all of the comments that have been submitted. To blame any of our past presidents is severely misguided. The problem with understaffed offices has been going on for years. I thanked the lady that I talked with today and expressed my appreciation for the job they do. Maybe that’s the best path forward. For until the Republicans ( which I am one) get their heads screwed on it will get worse.
Brenda V.
I hope you all are enjoying all the great things YOUR president Elon Musk and Vice President Trump is doing…..majority voted for this RIGHT!
James L.
Keep cutting and cutting this epidemic layers of wasteful inefficient out of control spending.
Great to finally see actions after all these decades of non movement and advantage taking of our good citizens.
The talk is over and Trump is acting on these issues.
I have no problem with Musk aggressive over due new statagies.
Cassie A.
Good, glad you feel this way.
I hope your non-elected president musk and convicted co-president takes your earnings first.
Sam D.
Very well said Cassie, all this pro musk/trump comments seems to be planted
Red M.
Your characterization of the SS workforce is disingenuous and inaccurate. The agency is, in fact, understaffed and overworked. Your actions are a thinly veiled attempt to weaken SS with the obvious intent to eventually destroy it.
The American people will not tolerate or stand by idly while Musk and Trump attempt to destroy this successful program, that keeps elderly folks out of poverty, while enriching the obscenely wealthy. Shame on you.
John P.
I second Red M’s comments
Veronica S.
As a SSI recipient I fully agree with everyone who left comments. I’m scared everyday thinking how I’m going to survive physically, mentally, emotionally with what is going on with these so-called changes which are going to hurt every American individual and families. It’s so wrong
Amanda
I work in this field, and the idea that there is bloat in the SSA workforce is a complete fallacy. I had one week where I called every single day to the Raleigh field office and never once got through. No human being. No voicemail. Routinely, when the field offices are answering the phones, you wait well over 20 minutes to speak to someone. I had a terminal client whose “expedited” disability application took 5 months to process and 2 months to get paid, meanwhile he and his family became homeless. I have many clients who have died before their applications were approved because the process takes so long. People deserve to have their applications processed in a timely fashion. Representatives and claimants deserve to be able to speak to a human being when they call. The truth is that there are too few people working at the SSA, not too many.
Shame on the SSA for putting out this propaganda statement.
Kim
Thanks to the Biden Harris party for putting out country trillions in debt. So it s not Trump it’s the demo party. They handed down a nightmare for tmp to straighten out.
TD
That is absolutely untrue and you know it. Trump does not care about anyone or anything except himself. He certainly doesn’t care about the USA, or it’s citizens. He wanted to stay out of jail and embezzle from us. Yes, us. He’s embezzling from you too. If he cared he wouldn’t waste our money on golfing trips, the Super Bowl, and his general sloth.
R N.
Did you know that even under Trump’s 1st term the US had trillions in debt? I voted for him both times but I didn’t vote for acting president Elon Musk! Our nations population is in decline so there are less and less people who will be paying into SS. For years the govt (both Dems and GOP) has been “borrowing” money from SS and not paying it back, this grave has been slowly dug starting with the end of the Baby Boomers which I am one. They call SS an entitlement, one which we paid for during our working lives and now we are not getting it back!
Gayle
It was Trump who gave the very rich 4 trillion dollar tax breaks. Not the Biden administration. Now it has to be paid and we the people are on the hook.
Lynn
Learn how to spell
Lynn
Learn how to spell. Trump could not straighten out a closet let alone the Social Security Administration . Trump is Musk’s puppet.
Me
Biden was trying to put things back together after Trumps first term of cuts !!!
Denis
Trump raised the National Debt 7.8 trillion in his 4 long long long years
warnya
8 trillion debt from first 4 years of Trump.
Pat L.
Do your research before blaming the last administration. You have to go back and see where the money went.
Deb
Wrong answer!
Deborah s.
I strongly agree. When I applied years ago had no problem. I just walked in and got a number. I went to the xenia ohio office.
Justina
You might want to see how much trump’s first admin added to the debt. And look into how much of a strong economy Biden left, which is now being destroyed. Proposed tax cuts for the wealthy will cost an estimated $4.5 trillion, the Fed estimates gdp will fall 3% for this quarter, and a recession is thought to be coming due to trump policies. And to pay for the tax cuts, their solution is to cut help for the most vulnerable.
Dick
Enjoy drinking your kommie koolaid!
Richard D.
Report Highlights Harms of Cutting SSA Staff
Amidst news that the Social Security Administration (SSA) may cut 50% of its staff, a new Urban Institute report looks at the challenges facing SSA as staff numbers decline due to inadequate funding and efforts to radically downsize the federal government.
The report highlights how shortages in staff will exacerbate backlogs of pending claims for Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), delaying benefits and increasing poverty among older adults and people with disabilities.