As if the world isn’t already worrisome enough, I’ve recently been fielding lots of questions  regarding the current state of Social Security, so I wanted to address the most popular  worries I’ve heard. As is true with anything the media gets a hold of, there are quite a few  misconceptions about what is going on, so I’ll do my best to provide some clarity here.  

Before I get started, I’d like to note that there is no way to eliminate political bias  completely, so I am striving to avoid as much as possible by sharing information that  comes exclusively from the Social Security Administration itself, rather than any particular  media outlet. Here we go. 

What I’ve Heard: Social Security is cutting its staff by 50%. 

From the Source: Social Security is reducing its workforce, but not by anything close to  50%. They have stated that they are reducing their total workforce from 57,000 to 50,000,  with the goal of these reductions being to eliminate redundancies and non-mission-critical  work efforts. It is expected that most of the reductions will be accomplished through  retirements and voluntary separations. (SSA Article) 

What I’ve Heard: Social Security is closing local field offices. 

From the Source: As of this writing, Social Security has not announced the closure of any  local field offices. This misunderstanding may be a result of the announced restructuring  plan in which SSA stated that it is reducing its regional offices from ten to four. (SSA Article  #1, SSA Article #2) 

What I’ve Heard: Social Security is eliminating phone services for benefits help. 

From the Source: At this time, all telephone-related services remain available in their  historical form with one exception: The only change is that SSA will now require either online or in-person identity verification when making changes to direct deposit information. 

According to SSA, approximately 40% of Social Security direct deposit fraud is associated  with someone calling SSA to change direct deposit information, so this new requirement is  intended to protect beneficiaries and ensure the integrity of the program. (SSA Article) 

Related Note to All Three Concerns Above: There have been reports about longer wait  times for both telephone and in-person service due to these changes. This may be true, but  based on my experience, long wait times are not a new complaint, nor are they limited to  the SSA. I can only assume that you have noticed, as I have, that longer wait times and poor  service are becoming more common across all industries (in both public and private  organizations), so it’s possible that this could just be a sign of the times, more than  anything else. 

What I’ve Heard (Again): Social Security is going bankrupt. 

From the Source: According to the most recent (2024) “Social Security Trustees Report,”  Social Security can pay full benefits through 2035, at which point, the famed Social  Security trust fund would be depleted. Beyond that time, assuming Congress takes no  further action to remedy this issue, the SSA would initially still be able to pay about 83% of  all scheduled benefits, despite the depleted trust fund. This is because Social Security is  mostly a “pay-as-you-go” system. Obviously, this potential outcome is not ideal, but it’s far  from the doomsday scenario of $0 benefits payable to beneficiaries that some recipients  seem to believe is inevitable.  

Furthermore, it's encouraging that the calculated changes that would be required to bring  Social Security back to full funding status through about 2098 are currently manageable.