Retiree and disability beneficiaries are worried about delays in payments, processing and services amid cuts being made to the US’s social security system under the Trump administration.
Angel Morgan, a 44-year-old disability benefits recipient in Nashville, Tennessee, said she felt like she was “running in circles” navigating long lines at her local social security office and difficulties in trying to make an appointment online to talk about her benefits and how to participate in the Ticket to Work program, which provides career development services for disability beneficiaries.
“I struggle with social settings and these things just make it worse. Trump doesn’t care about the struggles we go through and won’t quit until we are all bankrupt and either dead or wanting to die,” said Morgan.
An average of nearly 69 million Americans will receive social security benefits a month in 2025, most of them older people or those with disabilities.
The agency has been a significant target of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and its former leader Elon Musk, who has called social security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”.
Attacks on social security are not new – Republicans have long pushed to privatize social security and raise the retirement age to 69 years old – but the latest salvoes are having a profound impact on the agency and those who rely upon it.
The office of the inspector general, the watchdog of the Social Security Administration (SSA), warned in late 2024 of staffing shortages causing record backlogs and improper payments due to the lack of staff available to address the backlogs.
“Like most, I am concerned with the future of social security. With the limited employees, both in numbers and experience, there is no way that SSA can function,” said a longtime retired SSA employee and consultant for the agency who requested to remain anonymous.
According to the SSA, about 3,500 employees have taken voluntary separation or buyout agreements, as the agency is seeking to cut staff by at least 7,000, to 50,000 workers, which will be the lowest staffing at the agency in decades. The agency is also planning to strip civil service protections from all employees in offices around the country.
“This plan will dramatically impact the ability of SSA to timely process disability decisions, hearings, and appeals for claimants all over the country, who are already waiting too long,” said the American Federal Government Employees Social Security Administration general committee in a statement on the conversion plan.
The employee cuts have come amid a battle for Doge to gain data access and greater authority at the agency.
In March, a court blocked Doge from gaining access to data at the Social Security Administration containing the personal data of millions of Americans. The Trump administration is currently pushing for the US supreme court to weigh in and give Doge access.
Trump’s nominee for commissioner of the SSA, Frank Bisignano, has reportedly been involved in Doge’s actions at the agency and is a self-professed “Doge person”. Bisignano was confirmed by the Senate this month. Doge’s actions at the agency have included cancelling leases for dozens of social security offices across the US.
In interviews with the Guardian, social security beneficiaries reported already experiencing delays and increased fears they will be denied benefits or not receive payments they depend on to survive.
“So far my disability payment has shown up on time, but I sit on pins and needles each month waiting to see if it will,” said a 65-year-old disability recipient in Virginia who requested to remain anonymous. “You just barely survive with just social security. That’s why it would be immediately life-changing for so many of us.”
Morgan also said her benefits were not enough to barely survive amid rising costs of living.
“To be told that we may lose our benefits, and if we complain, means we are fraudsters, that stings. We depend on these checks to pay rent, buy food, medicine and gas,” Morgan added. “We don’t have the means to sell meme coins and gold shoes for donations.”
A 69-year-old retiree in California said they were still waiting on backpay and a benefit increase agreed in January 2025.
“The cost of living is rapidly increasing and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet,” they said. “I need this benefit.”
A 70-year-old retiree in Indiana said: “For the first time in my life, my wife and I are stressed out and worried if I will get my payment and if it will be on time.”
Judi, an 85-year-old retiree in Washington, explained that she had never worried in the past 20 years whether her social security check would show up until recently.
“Every month since the beginning of this regime, I am concerned. Will my check be there? Will there be some excuse for the check not coming? Will they cut the amount? And who are these people who have access to my private information? Information that the Social Security Administration always kept private,” she said.
Lorrie Bennett, 63, a disability benefits recipient in Louisville, Kentucky, said her payout date recently changed without notice and she was put on fraud alert to monitor her accounts over concerns about her data being compromised due to Doge.
“I didn’t know until the payment didn’t show up. When I contacted the SS Administration they didn’t see anything in the system showing the change,” Bennett said.
A 66-year-old retiree in Los Angeles said they were going to wait until age 70 to claim benefits but applied on 1 February this year, concerned about the Trump administration cutting benefits. “I was checking every few weeks to see when I would be approved, and on May 1, I saw that I was still not approved three months later,” they said.
They called the SSA phone service line for assistance and were told the person handling their application had left the agency. “Had I not called, my application would still be in limbo,” they said.
Arthur Gross, 72, of Woodside, New York, said he had been receiving socialsecurity retirement benefits for two years, but had delayed paying bills and switched out automatic bill payments due to uncertainty of receiving timely payments.
“Now with the Trump and Musk destruction of federal agencies in general and social security in particular, I have to worry each month until my payment shows up,” said Gross.
The Social Security Administration did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
