“In the event of a government shutdown, Social Security benefits will continue to be paid. The system hasn’t missed a payment in its entire 90-year history and won’t start now. But customer service at the Social Security Administration (SSA) may be disrupted, including benefit verifications, earnings record corrections and updates, overpayments processing, and replacing Medicare cards.
The level of disruption will depend on how many SSA employees the Trump administration deems ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ during the shutdown. Because the administration already has brutally reduced SSA’s workforce, it’s likely that many remaining staffers will be classified as ‘essential,’ but we cannot be sure.
This uncertainty adds to the public’s existing anxiety about the Trump administration’s actions at SSA. Trump & DOGE have slashed the workforce at the already understaffed agency and erected new barriers for customers seeking to access their benefits — under the cover of a phony hunt for ‘waste’ and ‘fraud’ (which is statistically rare). In particular, SSA has forced seniors and people with disabilities to go online or travel to understaffed field offices to do business that previously could be conducted via telephone. The website also has crashed multiple times since Trump and DOGE took over.
It’s perfectly understandable that beneficiaries would be concerned about additional disruptions during a shutdown. We would like to reassure the public about customer service at SSA, but we cannot honestly do that — given the administration’s blatant disregard for the needs of Social Security recipients, the 70 million people who depend on the benefits they earned over a lifetime of work.” – Max Richtman, President & CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare
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Media requests contact:
Walter Gottlieb