More than 31 million people visited SSA regional offices in the last fiscal year. Now, the agency aims to have 50% fewer visits — or no more than 15 million total — in fiscal year 2026, which started in October, according to internal planning documents seen by Nextgov/FCW.
Under Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, the agency aims to push people to interact with Social Security online rather than visiting a field office or calling the agency, though Bisignano told lawmakers in June that, despite his focus on technology, the agency is “not getting rid of field offices,” despite reports of planned closures.
The strategy is to provide more online self-service options, such as letting people check the status of their claims or access a digital Social Security number online.
This plan to move people online has reduced the number of employees in Social Security field offices by about 2,000, according to AARP. In July, the agency removed 1,000 field office staff from their roles to answer its national phone line, reducing staff numbers even further.
A Social Security spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW that the agency is changing its strategy and goals to match “the evolving service preferences of our customers” with “national scale, improved workflows, and modern technology.”
Still, not all claimants will want to or be able to reach the agency online.
“It’s good to see SSA offer more online service options as it works toward becoming a digital first agency,” Michelle Spadafore, a senior supervising attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group, told NextGov/FCW. “However, there should still be personalized options available to people, like some of our customers, who cannot navigate online services due to mental or technical barriers.”
“If they want to have less people coming in the front door, the average person is going to have to be able to do a lot more online,” an agency employee who was not authorized to speak on the record told Nextgov/FCW.
The agency’s emphasis on technology is not without challenges. Social Security has at times planned and then changed plans to add new identity proof requirements or anti-fraud checks to its phone lines, and has been criticized for making artificial intelligence chatbots difficult to use on its phone lines.
“Between staff reductions, more restrictive documentation requirements for Americans to get help over the phone, and the rapid reorganization of offices across the country, it is difficult to see how this goal will lead to anything other than worse service and more challenges to Social Security,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Nextgov/FCW in a statement.
“Cutting field office visits in half seems just another way to make it even more difficult for Americans to receive their benefits,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement.
‘Silently killing field offices’
Social Security is also working on a plan to further centralize claims processing, turning more of the work currently done by field offices over to central operations, Andy Sreubas, the agency’s head of field operations, told employees in an email last week.
“For decades, our ~1,250 regional offices have been operating as independent ‘mini-SSAs.’ That model no longer serves the public or our people,” Sriubas wrote last week. “That model must evolve into a truly national system that leverages our full potential.”
Improved processes and technology will help the agency continue to provide services beyond expected retirements and attrition, though the changes “are not a veiled effort to impact staffing levels,” he wrote.
“Field offices are and always will be our front line, serving the more than 330 million Americans with Social Security numbers,” a Social Security spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW.
He said, “The changes we are implementing will empower field office staff to focus on what they do best, solving customer needs individually with care, accuracy and efficiency, while directing more complex cases and time-intensive tasks to specialized teams in a centralized environment.”
Already, Social Security has reassigned many employees to frontline work such as processing disability claims, as it has reduced its headquarters and regional offices. Those reassigned employees face a steep learning curve and may lack support from regional offices, which the agency consolidated in February.
Now, Mrubas’ email has created concern among staff about the future of the field offices, an agency employee told Nextgov/FCW.
“They want less people at the front door and centralize all the work that doesn’t require direct customer contact,” he said. “It appears they are quietly killing regional offices.”
Jessica LaPointe, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents field office staff, said stakeholders have no input into the field office centralization process.
Another current employee said, “All they’re doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and hoping they’ll make it into the lifeboats.” He was not even authorized to talk to the press.
In addition to reducing field office visits, the agency also set a goal in its operational plan to schedule appointments within 30 days, reducing field office wait times by 20 minutes or more.
“We can’t meet any of these goals without more staff,” the employee said.
Standardization and centralization have potential advantages, said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
But “I don’t think you can reorganize your way out of staffing shortages, especially when you cut staff first and reorganize later,” he said.
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