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Schumer, Wyden, Senate Democrats Demand Answers On Brutal Impacts Of DOGE’s Social Security Cuts On American Families; Senators Call On Independent IG To Immediately Report Shortfalls, Consequences, And Ramifications Stemming From Devastating Cuts

New York, N.Y. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Senate Democrats sent the following letter to the Acting Inspector General of Social Security regarding the negative impacts of the recent DOGE cuts to Social Security:

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) sent the following letter to the Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Michelle Anderson, calling for a complete and thorough report into how the recent DOGE cuts – including executing mass layoffs, pressuring staff to retire, and closing regional offices – have adversely affected Americans who rely on Social Security.

“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,” the Senators wrote. “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.”

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 reduced staff, closed regional offices, and skyrocketed phone wait times. 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 seen here and below.

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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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