As Tesla CEO Elon Musk exits Washington and the inner circle of President Donald Trump, lingering questions remain over how the Department of Government Efficiency will continue to impact the Social Security Administration.
Under DOGE’s instruction, the SSA implemented several significant changes, including a reduction of 7,000 jobs and the introduction of a new anti-fraud system. Even as Musk and Trump end their alliance on bad terms, the current SSA commissioner, Frank Bisignano, said DOGE will still play a major role in how the agency operates moving forward.
Why It Matters
Nearly 70 million Americans rely on Social Security every month. The DOGE initiative has already brought substantial changes, including office closures and new data protocols. These operational shifts could directly affect the accessibility, timeliness, and privacy of benefits for American retirees, people with disabilities, and survivors.
What To Know
Bisignano told the Wall Street Journal he plans to implement DOGE staff to help the SSA update its customer service and employ more technology and artificial intelligence.
“I look at them as a resource to help me,” Bisignano said, adding he is “fundamentally a DOGE person.”
After being sworn in last month, Bisignano has focused on making the SSA more digitally based, allowing beneficiaries to replace their Social Security cards and complete other easy tasks online without requiring an office visit.
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Earlier this year, tension arose between SSA employees and DOGE, which circumvented standard procedures to access personal data about beneficiaries.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that DOGE may access non-anonymized Social Security records to support its initiative to improve government efficiency. The majority argued that DOGE’s work required broad access to SSA systems, while dissenting justices voiced concerns over privacy and the emergency nature of the relief.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, SSA has charted a new course for the agency that prioritizes enhancing customer service, reducing waste, fraud, and abuse, and optimizing its workforce towards direct public service,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a previous statement.
The SSA has reduced its staffing numbers from roughly 57,000 at the start of the year to just 52,000.
“I think we should get away from focusing on head count to focus on what our objective is, which is to do a great job for the public,” Bisignano said.
Trump and Bisignano have been vocal that there are no plans to cut Social Security benefits despite the agency’s impending financial troubles. Analysts have estimated that the SSA will not have sufficient funds for full payments by 2035 if no changes are made.
“The idea that I’d be doing anything other than trying to bolster it up is just crazy,” Bisignano said.
He also said that by September 2026, he hopes to reduce the average wait time for calls to the SSA to 12 minutes, from the current 19.2 minutes. Many callers never get to speak to a representative at all.
Bisignano also aims to reduce the average processing time for initial disability claims to 190 days from 231 currently, with the help of DOGE. However, the technological shifts could be met with some skepticism.
“Past suggestions of changes to how recipients interact with Social Security have been met with concern and even outright disdain,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek. “For older Americans who have paid into the system for years, they don’t want to see access to in-person and over-the-phone assistance drift away from what is such a pivotal source of income for millions each month.”
DOGE has also targeted overpayments at the SSA. In 2023, these payments resulted in $8.9 billion mistakenly paid out, including $97 million in fraud for retirement benefits.
As DOGE implemented staffing and service cuts, nearly 2 million additional annual trips to field offices are now expected for seniors and beneficiaries seeking in-person support.
SSA employees have warned of possible payment delays as they focus on processing 900,000 complex cases related to the Social Security Fairness Act. While the White House has stated that there is currently no need for panic, delays in updating beneficiary information or processing new applications may grow.
Legal and privacy experts have voiced alarm about DOGE’s expanded access to personal data. The recent Supreme Court decision allows the executive branch to potentially leverage Social Security data for multiple purposes, intensifying debate over the balance between governmental efficiency and individual privacy rights.
What People Are Saying
Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek: “DOGE will have an instrumental role in moving the SSA forward in regard to technology and innovation, but we truly haven’t seen the real impact as of yet. What many of the staffers are starting to understand is that implementation takes time and doing this will take years not months or days.”
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek: “Despite Elon Musk’s departure from DOGE, it appears the Social Security Administration is still very actively pursuing some of the department’s suggestions for efficiency, including more technological upgrades to customer service and increased use of artificial intelligence. However, it will be interesting to see if these changes see the light of day or, if they are implemented, they ultimately stick.”
What Happens Next
Musk’s exit from DOGE leadership leaves the trajectory of the task force’s reforms open-ended. It remains unclear who will drive the next phase of efficiency reforms and whether the pace of SSA restructuring will change, but so far, Bisignano has remained committed to DOGE’s principles.
However, transitioning the SSA into the modern age could involve its fair share of challenges.
“There won’t be any immediate impact this year or next. The changes DOGE is driving are mostly tech-heavy—system upgrades, digital improvements, backend overhauls,” Thompson said.
“Here’s the catch: by the time those improvements are implemented, the technology will already be outdated. It’s a never-ending game of catch-up. What gets upgraded today will need another upgrade tomorrow. That’s the reality of moving a legacy system into the digital age, yet and Social Security recipients won’t feel those effects anytime soon.”
