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SCHUMER, GILLIBRAND DEMAND ANSWERS ON BRUTAL IMPACTS OF DOGE’S SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS ON NEW YORKERS; SENATORS CALL ON INDEPENDENT IG TO IMMEDIATELY REPORT SHORTFALLS, CONSEQUENCES, AND RAMIFICATIONS FROM DEVASTATING TRUMP & ‘DOGE’ ATTACKS ON SOCIAL SECURITY

In The Wake of Waves Of Aggressive Trump-DOGE Attacks on Social Security, Services Are Breaking Down Across Country For Those Rely On Monthly Checks To Live – With Websites Crashing, Hours-Long Wait Times, ‘DOGE’ Firing 7,000+ SSA Workers And Plans To Close Regional Office, Senators Say This Assault Would Create Disaster

Schumer, Gillibrand: ‘DOGE’ Cabal Needs To Get Their Hands Off NY Seniors’ & Families’ Social Security Checks

Today, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand lead Senate Democrats in a letter to the Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Michelle Anderson, calling for a complete and thorough report into how the recent damaging DOGE cuts to the Social Security Administration – including executing mass layoffs, pressuring staff to retire, and closing regional offices – will, and have, adversely affected New Yorkers and others across America who rely on Social Security.

“Trump and ‘DOGE’ needs to get their hands off New Yorkers’ Social Security checks and stop systematically attacking and undermining the agency that runs this most vital program. Experts and Social Security workers have been screaming from the rooftops if ‘DOGE’ continues to cut Social Security operations to the bone, the system soon won’t be able to function. ‘DOGE’ has yet to produce one shred of credible evidence on how slashing the workforce and closing offices is going to do anything but delay seniors and the disabled getting their benefits. That is why we are demanding answers and a complete and thorough independent report on the impacts of the Trump-‘DOGE’ undermining of Social Security,” said Senator Schumer. “Right now, Trump and Musk, two billionaires, are trying to take a chainsaw to your Social Security benefits by closing offices, firing staff, and adding burdensome bureaucratic rules for seniors, people with disabilities and their families. It’s outrageous. These billionaires may not understand how a senior citizen depends on Social Security payments to buy food and pay rent, or what would happen if a check was late one month, but New Yorkers do. Social Security is not a ‘ponzi scheme’ or ‘government waste’; it is a program millions of Americans spent a lifetime paying into so they can have a secure retirement. It is lifeline for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.”

“Social Security is a critical lifeline that helps seniors in New York and across the country pay rent, buy food, and retire with dignity,” said Senator Gillibrand. “By firing staff and closing SSA offices, the Trump administration is trying to steamroll Social Security, depriving Americans of the benefits they’ve paid into their entire lives. Millions of New Yorkers will be harmed if President Trump gets his way, and I will fight to ensure Social Security benefits remain secure and accessible.”

The senators said that the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” – helmed by unelected billionaire Elon Musk – has claimed to get rid of the fraud and abuse in the federal government. But, instead of producing credible instances of either, DOGE has taken a chainsaw to essential programs, such as Social Security, and reports from across America have linked these reduced staff, closed regional offices, and skyrocketed phone wait times.

A Social Security worker from Upstate NY recently testified before Congress on the impact people are already seeing in their local offices. The NYT reported staff cuts, hurting the SSA that was already at were already at 50-year lows,  and rushed changes have already created backlogs and major issues for the workforce. Simultaneously, the Washington Post and many other outlet have detailed how repeated website crashes and hours long wait times on the phone have caused the system to start to break down. ‘DOGE’ has also reportedly pushed to defy court orders and access American’s private Social Security data.

Elon Musk has targeted Social Security, calling it a “ponzi scheme” and saying that Social Security is "the big one to eliminate". Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said his mother wouldn’t call and complain if she didn’t receive her Social Security benefits. Schumer said rather than making the government more efficient, these cuts will reduce government efficiency by making it more difficult for Social Security beneficiaries to receive their hard-earned benefits. Former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley said these cuts will crush our seniors and most vulnerable, and the system could collapse within a month, interrupting benefits.

The senators said it is clear – this delay in benefits is a cut by another name. It is vital that the Social Security Inspector General is aware of how these cruel and disastrous decisions by DOGE affect the timeliness in which seniors receive their benefits or in which the Social Security Administration is able to attend to customer service complaints, or process and hear decisions.

The letter can be found here and below:

Acting Inspector General Anderson:

We are writing to express deep concern regarding recent developments at the Social Security Administration (SSA) that will drastically disrupt—if not reduce—Americans’ earned benefits. In just the last month, SSA has rapidly shuttered offices, slashed thousands of its employees, and abruptly changed (and then reversed) long-standing customer service practices, with little transparency or consideration on its impact to its customers. In the past two months, SSA has dramatically restructured the agency and slashed its workforce, including:

  1. Announcing plans to dramatically reduce staff by at least 7,000, from 57,000 employees to 50,000, with additional layoffs reportedly under consideration;
  2. Executing mass layoffs to “non-mission critical” positions in retirement and policy, research, customer service, human resources, IT support, and civil rights;
  3. Pressuring employees to resign, retire, or reassign to a front-line position;
  4. Eliminating over half of the agency’s regional offices, which provide technical assistance to field offices and liaise with state and local community organizations who support individuals file for Social Security benefits;
  5. Reducing staff in the agency’s congressional and casework liaison office to three employees; and
  6. Dissolving other offices essential in proper administration of the Social Security programs.

These actions have already created a chilling effect among the agency’s workforce, with several senior SSA officials with centuries’ worth of institutional knowledge and experience having already left the agency. We are concerned that this hostile environment will foster burnout, low morale, higher attrition, and worse productivity among employees. Collectively, this will undoubtedly lead to disruption in benefit payments and increasing barriers for Americans to access their Social Security benefits.

We request SSA OIG review the agency’s actions to drastically reorganize its organizational structure, close numerous offices, and significantly reduce its workforce to determine whether it has affected the agency’s ability to provide quality customer service. Specifically, we ask the office to review:

  1. Whether SSA conducted any qualitative or quantitative analyses to evaluate the impact of these changes on SSA’s ability to administer the programs and on SSA’s beneficiaries since January 20, 2025, which may include Service Delivery Assessments (SDAs) or Service Area Reviews (SARs);
  2. Whether reducing regional offices from ten to four and reducing regional office staff contributed to improved customer service;
  3. Whether incentivizing field office employees to retire or resign improved customer service in the field offices;
  4. Whether incentivizing hearing office employees to retire or resign improved the agency’s ability to timely process disability appeals hearings;
  5. Whether incentivizing appeals council employees to retire or resign improved the agency’s ability to timely process appeals council decisions;
  6. Whether incentivizing staff in Social Security Card Centers to retire or resign improved customer service in Social Security Card Centers;
  7. Whether incentivizing teleservice center employees to retire or resign improved the agency’s ability to provide timely assistance to beneficiaries using the 1-800 service; and
  8. Whether incentivizing staff in program centers to retire or resign improved the agency’s ability to timely process clearances.

We further ask that your office provide us quarterly updates of the impact of the agency reorganization and any future workforce reductions has had on customer service.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

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