Social Security Disability Backlog Grew by 58,000 in Months Before Its Pro-Trump 'Best Performance' Email

Agency data put first-time claims awaiting a decision at 853,000 in a June update and 911,000 by 30 September

Social Security disability backlog, Social Security email Trump, Frank Bisignano — Frank Bisignano, who runs the SSA and is the IRS chief executive, signed both agencies' messages praising the president's record Internal Revenue Service / Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The disability claims backlog at the Social Security Administration (SSA) grew by about 58,000 between its late June update and 30 September. A month later, SSA chief Frank Bisignano emailed account holders. Copies online show he described fiscal 2026 as the agency's best in 91 years. The SSA also changed its comparison point between releases.

Bisignano's email, sent on 30 and 31 October, credited President Donald Trump days before Tuesday's midterm vote. The SSA says the backlog is still lower than in 2024, though its dashboard shows it higher than a year ago. Each claim is a person waiting for an answer.

What the Agency's Own Figures Show

First-time disability applications still awaiting a decision make up the backlog. An update published in late June put the figure at 853,000 claims. Figures released in mid-August showed 884,000 claims pending in July. By 30 September, the end of the agency's financial year, the total had reached 911,000, the highest of the three readings. Across the three updates, the increase came to 6.8 per cent, as the chart below shows.

Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano — IBTimes UK

In June and August, the SSA measured the backlog against a 2024 peak of nearly 1.3 million and claimed a cut of over 30 per cent. October's update instead used the end-FY2024 figure of nearly 1.2 million and reported a 23 per cent fall. Officials reissued it as a corrected version. Nothing in the new version explains the change, while the earlier releases keep the old baseline.

The Email and the Hatch Act

Bisignano, who is also chief executive officer of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), sent the message to online My Social Security account holders. Under Trump, he wrote, the SSA is becoming 'a model of excellence,' according to copies reviewed by The Washington Post. A separate IRS email under his name praised Trump's tax cuts. In July, Democratic senators said an earlier SSA message misused official resources to praise Trump, calling it an 'Orwellian twist'.

Under the 1939 Hatch Act, most federal workers may not use official power to influence elections. Kathleen Clark, who teaches law at Washington University in St. Louis, told The New York Times the email read as 'propaganda'. For Senate-confirmed officials such as Bisignano, the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) must report a violation to the president for appropriate action. In May 2025, it found that former commissioner Martin O'Malley had violated the act by speaking against Trump on the radio in 2024.

What the Updates Leave Out

The SSA's dashboard, updated in late October, goes further than the three updates. Its chart shows pending initial claims up about 26,000 compared with September 2025. The text beside that chart states that fewer people are waiting for a first decision. Pending disability hearings, the appeal stage for denied applicants, climbed from about 281,000 to 358,000 over the same 12 months.

First decisions now take 185 days on average, 24 days faster than a year earlier, the page says. None of the updates explains the summer rise or links it to staffing. By August, Office of Personnel Management data showed the SSA had shed nearly 8,000 more employees than it hired since Trump took office.