Social Security’s telephone customer service sucks, acting leader admits. Many senior citizens agree

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Social Security’s acting commissioner recently said out loud what many beneficiaries are thinking these days — the agency’s telephone customer service can “suck.”

“We need to show how bad we suck on the telephone so we can understand the problems,” acting commissioner Leland Dudek told agency executives at an operational meeting last month that was posted on YouTube. “Then we can be truthful with the public and then figure out rational ways to solve this problem.”

Complaints about Social Security’s telephone services predate the Trump administration. But changes to Social Security amid a massive reorganization spurred by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have prompted Americans to flood the agency’s phone lines with questions, including whether they’ll continue getting their benefits or will need to prove their identity in person.

So many more people have been calling in recent weeks that customer service representatives tell CNN it’s much harder for them to help those with more standard needs, such as applying for benefits or getting a new card.

Hundreds of people have written to CNN recently with their concerns about Social Security, including multiple readers who’ve spoken about long waits on hold, dropped phone calls and unfulfilled requests for calls back. Adding to the frustration is that some of those who manage to get through are told there are no available appointments with telephone specialists or at their local field offices — and are advised to try again later.

“When you call the Social Security number before open hours, you are given a message that you are calling outside of business hours,” said Linda Obermeit, who has yet to have her issue resolved despite hours on the phone and at field offices. “However, when you call a few seconds later, you are informed that there are too many people in (the) cue and to call back later.”

Asked for comment, the Social Security Administration sent a response from a White House official, who said there would be no disruptions to service.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Social Security Administration is taking bold steps to transform how they serve the public — improving frontline customer service, modernizing their technology, protecting beneficiaries and securing the integrity of their programs,” said Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson.

48 million calls

Some 48 million calls have been made to Social Security since the start of the fiscal year in October, up nearly 8 million, or 19%, from the same period a year prior, according to the agency’s operational report meeting from March 28, which was also posted on YouTube. Agents have answered 14.1 million calls, or almost 100,000 more than last year.

In March alone, the agency received 10.4 million calls, the highest volume in seven years, according to last week’s operational report meeting.

The share of callers who heard a prerecorded disconnect message when representatives were busy shot up to 28.4% in March, after hovering between 0% and 3.4% since November 2023, according to Social Security’s performance data. Fewer than 40% of calls reached an agent last month — a smaller share than in each month in 2024.

However, the average time waiting for a call back remained relatively the same at between 132 to 150 minutes over the past seven months, while the average hold time bounced around between one to two hours during that period.

Under Dudek, Social Security has beefed up its 800 number performance website, which now shows current wait times to speak to agents and to receive callbacks. On a recent Tuesday afternoon, the wait times topped three hours. Later that evening, they jumped to more than five and a half hours.

The site also prominently shows that there’s no wait for the “my Social Security” website — an effort to push more people to the agency’s online services.

Representatives have been getting many frantic calls from beneficiaries because of recent media coverage of the overhaul underway at the agency, including the slashing of staff and the effort to ban applying for retirement benefits and changing bank information over the telephone. (Earlier this week, Social Security reversed its plan to ban people from filing claims for retirement benefits over the phone.)

“They’re all in a panic that they’re going to lose their Social Security and insisting on appointments. It’s just tying us up from getting the regular work done both at the 800 number and in the field offices because they’re having appointments that aren’t necessary,” said Barri Sue Bryant, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2809, which represents workers at the call center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Bryant blames the extended wait times on the lack of staffing. The center, which had about 650 agents before the downsizing, has lost at least 33 customer service representatives, who have taken various incentives to depart, she said. Also, it could lose its IT and security teams, which would further hamper agents’ ability to do their jobs.

Last Friday, there were still 500 callback requests in the queue at midnight, she pointed out.

In Poughkeepsie, New York, the 22 staffers and managers at the agency’s field office could typically get through the few hundred calls they received each day, even if it entailed long waits for customers, said Amanda Bracco, representative for AFGE Local 3343, which represents the employees at the office. But now some folks coming in person tell her they have to call but immediately got a message saying there are no available agents — and the call would then disconnect.

“To me, that means even the queue for calls is full,” she said, noting that some of those who get through tell her they are very thankful that someone answered.

No calls back

Erin Siniff has experienced firsthand the change in customer service over the telephone. In September, she had to help her brother-in-law apply for retirement benefits. She received a callback after 90 minutes and secured a phone appointment for him to file for his claim 10 days later.

But she had a lot more trouble helping her 86-year-old mother file for survivor benefits after her father passed away in late February. She called for three days but never got the return calls that were promised. Finally, on the fourth day, she and her mother got a callback after waiting for six hours — although they had been told they’d get a call in 60 minutes. But the representative wasn’t able to make an appointment because the calendar was full and said her mom would be contacted when a spot opened up.

A week later, Siniff took her mom to a Social Security office about 40 minutes away in Silverdale, Washington. The representative said there were no available appointments that day but that they should receive a letter within two weeks. That didn’t happen, so in early April, Siniff and her mom drove over an hour to the Port Angeles, Washington, office. A representative uploaded her mom’s documents and arranged for a colleague to call her later in the day to complete the process.

Siniff, who used to be a social worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs and helped scores of people file for survivor and disability benefits with little trouble, said the ordeal was very frustrating and stressful for her mom.

“Her anxiety was getting high,” said Siniff. “We were sitting there attached to a phone, waiting for a callback. If it wasn’t for that young lady in Port Angeles, my mom would still be waiting.”

Obermeit, however, hasn’t been as lucky. She is still trying to apply for her ex-spouse’s Social Security benefits, which divorced people can do in certain circumstances and which would boost her monthly income by several hundred dollars. More than a half-dozen phone calls and five trips to agency offices have yielded no results.

Obermeit lives in rural Chiloquin, Oregon, and has poor cell service at home. So when she finally secured a phone appointment, she drove a few minutes away where the reception is better. The retired property manager sat in her cold car for more than an hour, but the call never came. A representative finally reached out after she’d returned home, but the call failed. She called back but was told there were no more appointments available.

“It is a limbo hell — a Social Security purgatory, of sorts — of uncertainty and inability to get a claim processed, despite hours of driving and phone time,” she said.

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