Social Security Administration funding cuts a disservice to Americans

Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee have recently voted to cut $500 million from the Social Security Administration (SSA) budget. It is important to understand that these cuts will not subtract even a penny from the deficit. 

Those Republican cuts will, however, undermine SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley’s tireless and laudable efforts to reduce wait times for disability decisions, retirement claims and waiting for calls to be answered. Those cuts will not reduce the deficit, but they will create obstacles to the American people’s ability to claim their earned benefits.

Social Security, including all of its associated administrative costs, does not add even a penny to the deficit. Those expenses are paid entirely from Social Security’s dedicated revenue, which comes primarily from the paychecks of working Americans. 

Currently, Social Security has an accumulated surplus of over $2.7 trillion. It spends less than a penny of every dollar on administrative costs. That is orders of magnitude more efficient than what private-sector retirement plans or insurance companies spend to provide their counterpart retirement annuities, life insurance and disability insurance.

Congress doesn’t appropriate a penny for Social Security’s administration. Rather, it limits how much of Social Security’s reserve SSA can spend on administration. In 2023, Congress limited those expenditures to just three-tenths of 1 percent of Social Security’s reserve. If Congress simply allowed Social Security to spend just a few tenths of a percent more, wait times would disappear.

Instead, largely Republican-controlled congresses have starved SSA for years. And today’s radical Republicans in Congress are pushing to cut half a billion dollars from this year’s spending level. 

If this became law, the results would be devastating. The fixed costs that the Social Security Administration experiences, including rent and salaries, increase every year. Further, 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day, causing SSA’s costs to go up even more.

Even keeping the same funding level would be devastating. A May 2024 study undertaken by the Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration has found that even level funding for SSA would result in deteriorating service. And the Republicans are pushing for even lower funding. 

Those cuts would result in direct harm to the American people. These radical Republicans in Congress are doing a disservice to their constituents as well as the nation at large.

The proposed cuts – just voted out of committee on a party-line vote – would force the Social Security Administration to close field offices and reduce office hours. SSA staffing is already at historically low levels. Those cuts would reduce staffing even more – despite an ever-growing number of people seeking service from SSA with respect to their earned benefits. 

There are already record backlogs; Republicans are implicitly pushing for those backlogs to grow. Over 1 million Americans are already awaiting a disability benefits determination decision. As a result of the cuts proposed by House Republicans, people applying for disability benefits would have to wait an extra two months longer than they do now — over nine months, on average, for a decision.

If the cut becomes law, over 3 million visitors and nearly 3 million 800 Number callers will go without any service whatsoever. Beneficiaries trying to contact SSA for help through the 800 Number are already waiting way too long to reach someone. Instead of waiting, too many will now hear busy signals.

Americans have already paid for first-class service from SSA. That is what they deserve. As polarized as the nation is, we are united in our support for Social Security. SSA assists Americans during life transitions and at some of the most vulnerable times of our lives. 

Republicans often talk about the virtues of running government like a business, but any business that had a product as popular as Social Security would be foolish not to invest some of their money into making sure customers could obtain their product quickly and easily.

Presumably, these radical Republicans in Congress are going after SSA because Social Security is too popular for them to cut benefits in the open. Instead, they are seeking to make it impossible to claim those earned benefits.

To justify their cuts, House Republicans are claiming that the availability of telework is a reason for the funding cuts. This dangerous red herring is slandering workers. Thanks to the starvation of SSA, morale at the agency is already frighteningly low. The cuts will push morale even lower and lead to more highly-trained employees leaving for better jobs or retirement.

Social Security is unquestionably on the ballot this November. Republicans want to cut Social Security and waste our time by increasing wait times to access our earned benefits. They want to give tax breaks to their billionaire donors. Democrats want to expand Social Security and allow SSA to spend just a few tenths of a percent more of its accumulated surplus.

Along with expanding benefits, the number of field offices should be expanded. Benefits should be made easier to access for Americans who have paid into Social Security their entire lives, not harder. All Americans deserve larger benefits, and we deserve the first-class service from the Social Security Administration that we have all paid for.

Nancy J. Altman is president of Social Security Works.