The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s shakeup of Social Security has triggered a major surge in claims, as older Americans rush to secure their benefits amid uncertainty.
Data from the Urban Institute, a research group, shows a record growth in Social Security retirement claims in the first half of fiscal year 2025. Claims are projected to rise 15 percent from last year, a sharp jump compared to the 3 percent annual average from 2012 to 2024.
Spooked by the Trump administration’s moves, anxious retirees are rushing to file Social Security claims earlier than planned, according to the Urban Institute.
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The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, has pointed to staffing cuts, new policies, and changes in customer service implemented by DOGE as likely drivers of confusion and fear among retirees.
Billionaire Musk, who led cost-cutting DOGE until his formal exit last week, branded the agency a “Ponzi scheme” and threw it into upheaval with sweeping changes and cuts, claiming to crack down on widespread internal fraud.
“Fearmongering has driven people to claim benefits earlier, ’cause they’re afraid they’re not going to claim benefits at all,” Dudek said.
Meanwhile, agency workers have warned that the combination of office closures, staff reductions, and shifting policies has created “complete, utter chaos” within the SSA and risks plunging the agency into a “death spiral,” The Guardian reported in April.
Staff cuts and reshuffling under DOGE have slowed claims processing, as experienced workers are replaced with a smaller group of less-seasoned staff. Updates to the agency’s website are causing daily crashes, while phone customers are dealing with long waits and dropped calls.
“People were very concerned that their benefits were going to stop,” Jessica Lapointe, who works in a field office in Wisconsin, and is a union official, told Axios. “The public really didn’t understand what was going on.”
Frank Bisignano, Trump’s pick for agency commissioner, told Axios in a statement that he is “fully committed to upholding President Trump’s promise to protect and strengthen Social Security.”
“Beneficiaries can be confident that their benefits are secure. We will deliver the highest standard of service, ensuring every payment is accurate, timely, and delivered to the right person.”
Rich Couture, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees’ Social Security Administration general committee, which represents some 42,000 SSA workers, has slammed the cuts, framing them as “a concerted attack on the legitimacy of social security itself.”
“The promise that this country has made to the public with respect to income security is being broken,” he told The Guardian.
The spokesperson said the situation was creating a “negative feedback loop” in which remaining staffers would be demoralized and quit “until the agency ends up in a death spiral with staffing, inducing office closures.”
“You’re going to see a wholesale collapse in the agency’s service structure. Call wait times will skyrocket, wait times for appointments, processing times, all of it going to skyrocket because there won’t be enough people to do the jobs, which opens the door to privatization,” said Couture.
