{"id":245947,"date":"2026-01-22T10:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/245947\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T10:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:27:10","slug":"social-security-is-making-a-change-that-could-disrupt-service-for-millions-of-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/245947\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security is making a change that could disrupt service for millions of Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social Security Administration will overhaul its workflow to accommodate a slimmed-down workforce and handle its cases on a nationwide basis \u2014 as opposed to addressing beneficiaries\u2019 cases locally. That could lead to further service disruptions at an agency that handles benefits for about 75 million Americans.<\/p>\n

The change, which will come in about two months, could lead to delays in service as employees are forced to learn the nuances of different state laws that could impact benefits. Rather than working as regional silos, each of the 1,200 local field offices will soon manage benefits nationally.<\/p>\n

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The planned change comes after much upheaval at the agency. In the past year, the Social Security Administration has cut about 12% of its workforce \u2014 about 7,000 jobs \u2014 closed regional offices, replaced top leadership and changed its phone customer-service system. It has also encouraged beneficiaries to use online services, even as some older adults and people with disabilities have access issues.<\/p>\n

The Social Security Administration will launch the National Appointment Scheduling Calendar (NASC) and National Workload Management (NWLM) for all field operations, digital services, and processing centers on March 7, Federal News Network recently reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t make up for the loss of 7,000 staff with this method,\u201d said Wendell Primus, visiting fellow at the Center on Health Policy at the Brookings Institution, an independent think tank. \u201cEven before all the changes, we needed more staff. We had backlogs. This is boneheaded and stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Social Security\u2019s new commissioner, rule reversals and cost cuts: Here\u2019s everything that\u2019s happening at the agency<\/a><\/p>\n

Andy Sriubas, the Social Security Administration\u2019s chief of field operations, told Social Security employees in a Nov. 25 memo that changes would be made to centralize the workload.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, our ~1,250 field offices have operated as independent \u2018mini-SSAs.\u2019 That model no longer serves the public or our people. It prevents true specialization, limits the impact of technology, and produces backlogs we should not sustain,\u201d Sriubus wrote in a memo, according to the Federal News Network report.<\/p>\n

When asked about the change, the Social Security Administration said, \u201cField offices are, and will always remain, our front line.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the changes being made \u201cwill empower field office staff to focus on what they do best, resolving customers\u2019 needs in-person with care, accuracy, and efficiency, while directing more complex cases and time-intensive tasks to specialized teams in a centralized environment,\u201d the Social Security Administration said. \u201cLeveraging our national scale, improved workflows, and modern technology, SSA will shift its strategy and goals to match our customers\u2019 evolving service preferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to concerns about adequate staffing, analysts cited potential issues with a nationwide workforce lacking local knowledge of different state programs and policies. For example, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which provides benefits to those with limited income who are 65 or older, blind or disabled, has eligibility and payments that can vary by state.<\/p>\n

Moving to a national caseload will require training and employee education, analysts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big departure from how SSA has done business, so the most important thing is getting the implementation right. That means things like giving staff the resources they need to understand the nuances of 50 states\u2019 laws for the many programs and policies that interact with Social Security and SSI, figuring out an efficient way to share paper documents nationwide, and adequately training staff on the new system,\u201d said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting this right will be particularly tricky for SSI. It\u2019s not clear yet what SSA\u2019s implementation plan is or if it\u2019s sufficient \u2013 if not, the rollout could cause significant challenges for applicants. There are still problems with last year\u2019s hasty switch to nationalizing phone service that have yet to be resolved,\u201d Romig said.<\/p>\n

The Social Security Administration on Thursday highlighted service changes made in the past year, saying 65% more calls were answered in fiscal 2025 than in the prior year, with the average speed of answer for the 800-number being in the single digits of hold time. A total of 90% of the calls are now resolved by self-service options or callbacks. Critics have cautioned that callback wait times can be over an hour.<\/p>\n

Read: Social Security says its phone service is getting better \u2014 but watchdogs warn callback wait times can run over an hour<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Primus and Romig said the Social Security Administration needs more staffing to handle the current workflow, no matter how the work is organized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout adequate staffing, SSA can\u2019t serve the public adequately. Right now, SSA doesn\u2019t have enough front-line staff to meet the demand for timely service. Simply shifting workloads around won\u2019t change that,\u201d Romig said.<\/p>\n

Most Read from MarketWatch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social Security Administration will overhaul its workflow to accommodate a slimmed-down workforce and handle its cases on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,143739,246,143741,111,139,69,244,245,143740,2552,143738,1050,1051,24557],"class_list":{"0":"post-245947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-field-offices","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-kathleen-romig","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-planned-change","18":"tag-service","19":"tag-service-disruptions","20":"tag-social-security","21":"tag-social-security-administration","22":"tag-supplemental-security-income"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}