WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Elizabeth Warren and several Democratic lawmakers sent a letter on March 16 to Social Security Administration Commissioner David Bisignano requesting details on how workforce reductions and the reassignment of field office staff to the national 1-800 number have affected claims processing and wait times. The letter followed a reduction of approximately 7,000 SSA employees — about 12 percent of the agency's workforce — by DOGE last spring.

"Your reassigned employees are being moved with barely any training, forcing them to go from more technical positions to customer-facing roles with only days' notice. These reassignments are band-aid solutions to patch over ongoing service problems," Warren wrote in the letter.

Social Security is the nation's largest social safety net program, with 74 million Americans relying on monthly checks. Prior to the staffing cuts under the Trump administration and Elon Musk, SSA staffing levels were already at a 50-year low. Following the spring workforce reductions, additional employees have retired or quit their positions.

The agency has reassigned hundreds of local field office employees to national phone lines to meet demand. A spokesperson said the average customer service phone answer speed was eight minutes in February 2026, down from 26 minutes in February 2025.

"Online, over the phone, or in field offices, customer service is improving," a spokesperson said. The spokesperson also said the SSA is working to make claims processing more efficient and noted that the agency's beneficiary online portal is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

However, many of the redirected field office staff members have been assigned to roles for which they were not trained.

Edwin Osorio, a field office worker and union leader, described the effect of the changes on remaining staff members. "Employees walking around on eggshells, thinking, 'How much longer until I break? How much longer until I can't handle it anymore?'" Osorio said.

The SSA stopped publishing real-time customer service wait time data last summer and has not released updated average wait times for 2026. The lack of publicly available data was among the concerns raised by the lawmakers in their letter to Bisignano. Baby boomers represent the largest cohort to reach retirement age simultaneously, with most claiming Social Security benefits in their 60s.