Social Security
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America's Social Security system is under visible strain, with staffing cuts, office closures, and shifting rules under Donald Trump's second administration now colliding with the lives of disabled Americans who rely on federal support simply to survive.

The Social Security Administration has cut more than 7,100 jobs since early 2025, according to Fortune, wiping out over 13% of its workforce in the largest staffing reduction in the agency's history. At the same time, more than 400,000 low-income Americans face losing up to $331 (£246) a month under a proposed rule change targeting Supplemental Security Income recipients.

Disability advocates describe a system becoming slower, harder to navigate and increasingly inaccessible for the people most dependent on it.

An Agency Retreating From Public Access

For millions of Americans, Social Security is not just retirement income as it is used for rent money, food money, and medication money.

The agency oversees benefits for more than 60 million retired workers and survivors, while administering disability programmes for roughly 16 million people through Supplemental Security Income, known as SSI, and Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI.

SSI currently provides a maximum monthly payment of $994 (£738.75) for low-income disabled adults and elderly Americans. SSDI payments vary based on work history, averaging around $1,634 (£1214.40) per month in 2026.

Yet even before the latest upheaval, securing disability support was notoriously difficult. What has changed during Trump's second term is the scale of operational disruption inside the agency itself.

According to reporting cited by Fortune, six of the agency's 10 regional offices have closed. More services have shifted online, automated systems now handle larger portions of public phone lines and key performance metrics have quietly disappeared from public view.

In June 2025, the Social Security Administration removed data tracking phone wait times and disability processing delays from its website. That decision mattered more than it may first appear. Without those figures, the public lost one of the few ways to measure whether the system was deteriorating.

Researchers studying the agency's changes interviewed 52 benefits advocates working across 32 non-profit organisations. Many requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

The findings paint a bleak portrait of administrative dysfunction.

'I just have so many cases that are stuck in purgatory because they don't have enough workers to work them,' said Jane, a paralegal in the Kansas City region. 'They don't have enough workers to answer the phone to tell me what's happening to them.'

Long Waits and Vanishing Expertise

Advocates described experienced workers leaving the agency while less specialised employees were reassigned into unfamiliar roles.

Phone systems increasingly routed callers to offices unable to help them and AI chatbots often failed to answer even basic questions. The result has been mounting delays at nearly every stage of the disability claims process.

An Urban Institute analysis found disability claims filed during the first half of 2025 fell by 7% compared with the same period the previous year. The Social Security Administration operates more than 1,200 offices nationwide, but many applicants now report being turned away without appointments despite earlier assurances that walk-ins would still be accommodated.

'Now, we can't reach anybody at Social Security,' said Freddie, a benefits representative in the Denver region. 'We can't get through to make an appointment.'

As of May 2026, 10 Social Security offices in nine states were either closed to the public or operating strictly by appointment.

Proposed Rule Change Could Hit Families Hardest

While administrative disruption has slowed access to benefits, another fight is unfolding around the size of those payments themselves.

The Trump administration is proposing to reverse a Biden-era rule introduced in 2024 that expanded protections for low-income SSI recipients living with family members.

Under current policy, households receiving SNAP benefits can qualify more easily as 'public assistance households', limiting how much support from relatives is counted against an SSI recipient's monthly payment.

The proposed rollback would change that calculation. If implemented, support such as free housing or food provided by relatives could once again be treated as income by the government. Critics say the practical effect is punishing disabled adults and elderly Americans for living with family because they cannot afford independent housing.

More than 275,000 SSI recipients could see their monthly payments reduced under the proposal, while over 100,000 people may lose eligibility entirely.

A maximum SSI payment of $994 would fall by roughly one-third, leaving recipients with around $663 (£492.74) per month.

The Social Security Administration argues the change is necessary to preserve the programme's 'integrity'. Advocacy groups see something else entirely. They warn the proposal would hit some of the poorest and most medically vulnerable Americans at a moment when housing costs and living expenses remain painfully high across much of the country.

One Philadelphia attorney described a terminally ill homeless client whose paperwork had reportedly been lost for three years.

'This woman is dying,' Anne said. 'All you have to do is push a little button to get this moving, and you're telling me you can't.'

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