Employee cuts at Social Security are leaving remaining workers struggling to keep up

Source: NPR

April 26, 2025 5:00 AM ET


Jessica LaPointe has worked at a Social Security field office in Madison, Wis., for the past 16 years. And she says right now, the work is harder than ever. LaPointe says disruptions prompted by the Trump administration's efforts to make deep cuts in the federal government workforce have left many remaining Social Security employees "burned out … and overwhelmed." Field offices are the public-facing branch of a sprawling agency that provides retirement and anti-poverty benefits to 73 million Americans.

"We really feel the brunt of the public that we serve and the chaos and confusion surrounding Social Security and its impact on them," said LaPointe, who's president of a local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 25,000 field office workers. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has laid out plans to slash about 12% of its overall workforce, or 7,000 jobs. Rich Couture, a spokesman for AFGE SSA's General Committee, says more than 2,500 employees at the agency have taken an offered buyout, and that many of the workers who have left were in critical roles — including those local field offices.

"That's the primary point of contact, other than the 1-800 number, that the American people have with Social Security," he said. "They take care of enumeration issues with respect to Social Security cards, handle retirement, disability survivor claims, interviews and processing, among other workloads." Couture says the agency has lost about 2,000 employees specifically from the field offices through the federal government's buyout program.

These losses have disproportionately affected certain local offices. Couture told NPR that there are about 40 field offices that have lost at least 25% of their staff so far, and others, such as offices in Nevada, Mo., and Alexandria, Minn., have lost half or more of their workers, according to agency data. "The impact on those offices in particular is going to be significant, where you are going to see waiting times for visitors, including those who have appointments, go up exponentially," Couture said.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/26/nx-s1-5368480/social-security-workforce-cuts