AARP Pushes for Crucial Funding for Social Security Customer Service

AARP calls on the White House to take steps to avoid exacerbating Social Security’s customer service crisis if Congress fails to pass a 2025 fiscal year budget by next month’s deadline.

This week, we wrote to Shalanda D. Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, urging her to request temporary funding from federal lawmakers to ensure the Social Security Administration is adequately funded if budget talks stall. Federal funding expires on Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

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We're trying to prevent a repeat of last year, when monthslong delays to congressional spending bills forced a hiring freeze and hampered the agency’s ability to address a flood of customer service complaints. AARP has been a vocal critic of record-high hold times for people calling the SSA’s national 800 number for help in recent years, and delays of months or even years on disability claims.  

“Social Security is a lifeline to millions of older Americans and their families, and ensuring that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has the resources it needs to effectively serve them is vitally important,” Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president for government affairs, wrote in the Aug. 19 letter. 

Unlike Social Security benefit payments, which are mandatory federal spending, SSA administrative spending — which includes customer service — is subject to the annual federal appropriations process. 

In 2022, AARP and its members successfully fought for a significant boost in funding for the SSA to address a customer service crisis after field offices closed for two years during the pandemic. SSA officials have said major improvements would take time. 

Sweeney said recent investments are beginning to pay dividends. Hold times are slowly coming down, and the SSA administration indicated it is working to bring down processing times for claims as well. But Sweeney warned that the lack of temporary funding could derail any progress if Congress fails to pass a budget before the start of the new fiscal year. 

“Last year, when full-year appropriation bills were not passed until halfway through the fiscal year, SSA could not fill open positions, which has now resulted in a 27-year low in staffing,” Sweeney wrote. “Understaffed offices mean longer wait times and more frustration for your constituents, who cannot get the service they need and have already paid for through a lifetime of hard work.”

Keep up with AARP’s coverage of Social Security, and use AARP’s Social Security Calculator to find out how to maximize your benefits.