Social Security Head Tells Congress to Make Changes or Face ‘Angry’ Voters

Social Security’s commissioner Martin O’Malley is warning Congress that it needs to make changes to the Social Security Administration or face leagues of “angry” voters.
Millions of Americans rely on Social Security payments each month. The government program supports seniors during retirement as well as those living with disabilities.
However, the program faces a funding crisis, with the most recent Trustees report finding the government would run out of money for full payments by 2033.
More From Newsweek Vault: The Latest Social Security COLA Estimate: Will It Be Enough to Keep Pace With Inflation?
As Americans worry about how the funding problem could impact their future retirements, O’Malley has called attention to another issue the SSA is grappling with: understaffing.
“The Social Security Administration has been chronically underfunded, and our staffing is continuing to decline, while the number of beneficiaries we serve keeps growing—we are serving more people than ever with the lowest staffing level in decades,” a spokesperson for the SSA told Newsweek. “We need Congress to ensure that Social Security has the necessary funding and staffing to provide the type of service Americans deserve and have paid for.”
“My first seven months here, we were in a hiring freeze. We have fewer staff because of reductions imposed on us by Congress,” O’Malley told The Dallas Morning News this week.
“Our fixed costs are going to go up and we’re no different than a police department or school in that respect. It’s like having more students but less teachers. So we really need Congress to act to restore staffing, otherwise they’re going to end up with more angry constituents upset about wait times and Social Security.”
More From Newsweek Vault: Compare the Best Low-Risk Investments with Maximum Rates
O’Malley became commissioner in 2023 and has focused on hiring more workers and improving the SSA’s customer service.
“We have two crises. One is upon us already, and that is a crisis of customer service, which can have deadly implications,” O’Malley said. “But if we can improve customer service, that will not only save lives, it’ll create more trust at the table of our democracy to address the longer term strength and health of Social Security, potentially for generations to come.”
More From Newsweek Vault: Best Place to Put Your Benefits: CD vs. High-Yield Savings Account
O’Malley wants to reassure Americans that the funding crisis the SSA faces is also fixable, The Dallas Morning News reported.
“Social Security is not about to go bankrupt,” O’Malley said. “Social Security will, if Congress doesn’t act, face a 17 percent benefit shortfall for all of our beneficiaries currently in payment status. The good news is this is a solvable problem.”
Beginning in the mid-2030s, Social Security is slated to only be able to pay 83 percent of monthly benefits, but this could change if certain changes were made to the program.
Some ideas brought by lawmakers include raising the retirement age or taxing more of the wealthy’s income. O’Malley specifically has suggested that taxing the top 6 percent in America could help restore the program’s money.
“Today, while you and I may pay into Social Security all through the year, someone like Warren Buffett is done paying into Social Security approximately 21 seconds into the new year,” O’Malley said. “Most of the proposals in Congress are some mix of asking higher-end earners to continue to pay into Social Security after a certain point in their earnings. But it likely won’t happen until after the next election.”
While O’Malley doesn’t anticipate lower payments in the 2030s or the retirement age changing, he’s hoping Congress can fix the larger staffing problem at the agency.
The SSA currently only employs 55,000 workers, which is the lowest level of staffing in around three decades. It’s also taken on a record-breaking number of beneficiaries as more Baby Boomers retire.
In President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget proposal, the president seemed to support the need for more staff at the SSA by adding on a $1 billion budget increase.
O’Malley said during his tenure as commissioner, wait times to speak to a Social Security agent have already decreased by more than 20 minutes.
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, said many Americans who encounter problems with their Social Security benefits still face long waits and constant delays in processing corrections due to the SSA’s current staffing levels.
“These requests for help are only going to grow as more elderly Americans reach retirement age and need assistance with Social Security,” Beene told Newsweek. “The current employee base – and a potentially even smaller one in future years will more than likely make this process that much more difficult for even more recipients.”
More people are retiring and becoming eligible for Social Security meanwhile the staff is either declining or not increasing fast enough to handle the workload, said Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group.
“The long wait times, and the constant misinformation individuals receive, on top of the bureaucracy across the agency with forms and paperwork, it is no wonder why people are angry,” Thompson told Newsweek.
Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of michaelryanmoney.com, said “short-sighted” budget cuts are to blame for the staffing crisis.
“Congress has asked the SSA to do more with less,” Ryan told Newsweek. “While ignoring the reality that Social Security touches the lives of nearly every American. This isn’t just about longer wait times, It’s about potentially delaying benefits that millions rely on for basic needs.”
He added, “If this staffing crisis isn’t addressed, we’re likely to see a domino effect. Delays in processing claims could force seniors to postpone retirement. Or face financial hardship. We might see an increase in errors due to overworked staff. This will lead to benefit miscalculations that could take years to correct.”