The American Federation of Government Employees is pushing Congress to dramatically increase funding for the Social Security Administration amid a worsening staffing crisis.
AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe called on lawmakers to approve $3 billion above current spending levels to hire an additional 20,000 SSA employees.
LaPointe said the funding is needed “to begin to dig us out of the backlogs and service delays that have worsened since 2011.”
“We are simply bleeding staff and have problems with recruitment and retention as a result,” LaPointe told reporters during an online press briefing.
The union’s staffing analysis identified numerous Social Security field offices operating as so-called ghost offices, meaning they are critically understaffed and functioning with very limited capacity.
According to AFGE’s bargaining data, none of the identified ghost offices have production employees or bargaining unit members currently assigned to them.
Compounding the problem, SSA’s administrative budget has fallen from 1.2% of benefit outlays in 2017 to just 0.86% today, representing an annual loss of roughly $3 billion in operating revenue.
SSA staffing has dropped to a 59-year low, and the agency lost more than 7,000 employees during 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to reduce the federal workforce.
A union survey conducted in late December 2025 and early January 2026 found that 65 percent of SSA employees reported service quality had declined over the prior 12 months.
Field offices are being further hollowed out by the systematic reassignment of staff to support the national 1-800 telephone line, pulling workers away from in-person services that many beneficiaries depend on.
SSA Commissioner Bisignano has argued that technology improvements, including expanded use of artificial intelligence and automation tools, have generated the equivalent of 2,500 work years in productivity savings, “allowing staff to spend more time serving customers directly.”
Republican lawmakers have pointed to those productivity figures as evidence that the agency does not need to significantly increase headcount.
The agency’s own budget proposal includes $1.9 billion in total IT spending for the upcoming fiscal year, with an SSA spokesperson stating the plan “will enable the agency to continue executing on our digital-first agenda and streamline operations.”
AFGE and its members argue that technology alone cannot substitute for the tens of thousands of workers needed to process claims, staff offices, and reduce wait times for millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits.
