The Trump Administration is making it harder for eligible Social Security beneficiaries to access their benefits by eliminating phone services, forcing millions more people to seek in-person help even as it cuts thousands of Social Security Administration (SSA) staff. At the same time, increasingly frequent website outages are making it harder to seek service online. These abrupt and unjustified changes will worsen customer service delays and strain capacity at local field offices throughout the country.

President Trump has repeatedly promised not to cut Social Security benefits — but his Administration’s actions will effectively do just that, by making it harder or even impossible for people to access their earned benefits.

Starting April 14, phone service will no longer be an option for retirees and survivors applying for benefits, or for beneficiaries making direct deposit changes. Instead, these services will only be available in person at an SSA field office — a 45-mile trip for some 6 million seniors nationwide, a new CBPP analysis finds — or online, if an online application exists and if a person is able to access SSA’s online tools. Many seniors and people with disabilities lack internet service, computers or smartphones, or the technological savvy to navigate a multi-step, multi-factor online verification process. Even as SSA is encouraging people to do business online, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is making changes to online identity authentication that are triggering system outages and access problems.

Eliminating most applications by phone will close off an important mode of service for millions of people. Some 5.2 million people began to receive Social Security retirement, survivors, and dependent benefits in 2023.[2] More than 4 in 10 retirees apply for their Social Security benefits by phone, as do most spouses who are eligible for benefits. So do the substantial majority of bereaved family members who are eligible for benefits following the death of a worker.

The agency estimates that ending phone service would push about 75,000 to 85,000 more people per week to seek in-person service — over 4 million annually. SSA itself says this will lead to “longer wait times and processing time” and “increased challenges for vulnerable populations” as the demand for office appointments rises. And it comes when SSA is reportedly pursuing other policies that will increase the number of weekly field office visits by thousands. This will compound wait times and competition for an already limited number of appointments, which are required for most in-person services.