March 17, 2026
Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, along with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and ten Senate Democratic colleagues, launched a new investigation into the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) ongoing customer service crisis reaching new extremes. In a new letter to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, the senators raised concerns that staffing cuts and staff reassignments have left the agency unable to “fully serve” the 75 million Americans who rely on the program. “Our seniors have spent a lifetime paying into Social Security, and they deserve to receive their hard-earned benefits and retire with dignity,” said Senator Gillibrand. “The Trump administration has starved the Social Security Administration of the resources it needs to serve the 75 million Americans who rely on it. The result is longer wait times, more frustration, and real hardship for families trying to access critical benefits. These reckless cuts are hurting our seniors and families across the country. I am demanding the administration immediately fix this customer service crisis and will keep fighting to ensure every American can count on the Social Security benefits they need and have spent a lifetime earning.” In addition to Senators Gillibrand and Warren, the letter was signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
“[Staff] reassignments are band-aid solutions to patch over ongoing service problems that have plagued the agency under your leadership,” wrote the senators, highlighting ongoing staffing shortages and field office closures. Staff cuts have left the agency with an average of only one field office representative per nearly 4,000 beneficiaries – a ratio that is 12 percent higher than it was before the cuts. With over 100,000 people visiting their local SSA office every day, these staffing reductions translate to declining customer service. According to a recent survey of SSA employees, nearly two-thirds reported that “service quality had declined in the past 12 months” and 70 percent reported “service speed had declined.” Over the last year, the Trump administration has slashed SSA’s workforce by over 7,000 employees, causing some field offices to close. At the same time, SSA is short-staffing field offices in an effort to eliminate 15 million in-person field office visits, forcing seniors, people with disabilities, and their caregivers to wait even longer for an appointment or spend hours on the phone trying to speak with a live agent.
Instead of fixing those problems, Bisignano has attempted to cover up the mess by reassigning employees and seeking untested technological shortcuts to paper over staff shortages. Some of those reassignments include pulling expert employees away from SSA’s “disability adjudication, financial and management, field office services, risk and quality, digital services and chief information officer units” to help answer SSA’s national phone line. “This entire process of firing and pushing out call service staff, re-assigning other employees to serve as call center staff, and now rehiring a whole new set of inexperienced call service staff…is a costly, wasteful process that only adds to the customer service chaos,” wrote the senators. Reassigned employees are reportedly now only receiving three hours of training before starting on the SSA help line, despite the agency claiming they would receive eight hours of training. Employees familiar with handling the phone line say that eight hours of training is “insufficient due to the complexity of issues that can arise on a call.” The impacts of this lack of training are already becoming apparent — with literal life and death consequences. Newly reassigned employees have reported that they are receiving alarming guidance on handling callers expressing suicidal thoughts, including reminding callers “that suicide is only one option.” As the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, Senator Gillibrand is continuing her longstanding fight to increase benefits and lower costs for seniors. Late last year, she introduced the Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act, which would provide a $200-per-month increase to Social Security checks until July 2026, and the Boosting Benefits and COLAs for Seniors Act, which would increase Social Security benefits by leveraging the formula used to calculate yearly cost-of-living adjustments to better account for seniors’ expenses. In response to Trump administration cuts and overhauls at the Social Security Administration, she has rallied alongside seniors and unions to demand a reversal of staffing and service reductions, and she introduced the Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act to undo President Trump’s damage to the agency. Senator Gillibrand is also part of the Senate Democrats’ Social Security War Room, a coordinated effort to fight back against the Trump administration’s attacks on Social Security and to ensure the American people can continue to rely on these essential programs that they have earned. The War Room coordinates messaging across the Senate Democratic Caucus and external stakeholders; encourages grassroots engagement by providing opportunities for Americans to share what Social Security means to them; and educates Senate staff, the American public, and stakeholders about the Republican agenda and their continued cuts to Americans’ Social Security services and benefits.
