Social Security Chief: Agency Working to ‘Serve the Client Faster’

In AARP interview, Frank Bisignano touts ‘digital-first’ push but says SSA will meet customers ‘where they want to be met’

Bill Walsh,

AARP

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Published February 26, 2026

Since taking office in May 2025, Frank Bisignano, commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), has vowed to put the agency on a “digital-first” footing that shifts more of its business online while preserving customers’ access to services by phone or in person.

Bisignano elaborated on his priorities in a Feb. 18 interview at AARP’s national office in Washington, D.C., touting expanded access to online services, faster answer times at the SSA’s national phone helpline and committing “100 percent” to keeping the agency’s 1,200-plus local offices open.

“It’s really about being a digital-first agency but meeting clients where they want to be met,” said Bisignano, who also addressed the SSA’s disability claims backlog and anti-fraud efforts.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You were a CEO in the private sector before this, but you also have a really interesting personal connection with Social Security through your grandfather. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

My grandfather came to the United States and became a citizen. I actually grew up in a multigenerational immigrant household. That was my maternal grandfather, who ultimately was disabled and blind, and so he was a beneficiary. I can remember always walking with him, until he passed when I was 9 years old.

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My dad was an orphan, one of 15 [children in his family]. In 1940, when Social Security became available, he was in the first group of eligible people. He went on to [serve in] World War II and ultimately spent years in the federal government, in the Treasury Department. So I feel honored to get the opportunity. I didn’t have the opportunity to serve as my grandfather and father did for this country, but now I get the opportunity to serve the country.

That personal connection with Social Security was a real lifeline for your family.

Yeah, 100 percent. My grandfather lived with us. The ability to get that supplemental disability [benefit] back in the day, because he was blind, was tremendously helpful to our family.

And now you’re the commissioner. Talk a little bit about what your priorities are and what steps you’ve taken in that direction.

Coming in as commissioner, [from] the time you’re nominated and then ultimately confirmed, you’re paying a lot more attention to the organization you’re going to run, but you’re doing it from afar. There was a lot of change that went on before I was appointed, but I went on the website, looked at the performance stats and thought that we could do a much better job for the American public. If we’re going to live the mandate of the president, his great mission, which is to protect and preserve [Social Security], the first thing we have to be able to do is serve the American public in a manner they’re accustomed to being served.

We created a phrase, I created before I got there, which is: We’re going to meet clients where they want to be met. Let’s meet ’em in the field offices, let’s meet ’em on the phones, let’s meet ’em on the web — however they want.

And I think we have a lot of accomplishments there. We cut phone wait times by, in many cases, more than 50 percent. That allowed us to answer 65 [percent] more calls last year than in the prior year. I think that matters. That means people get their confidence up that they’re not going to wait long and they’re going to get served. And then, putting appointments out there in the field offices allows people to wait maybe six minutes when they go to a field office with an appointment.

So it’s really about being a digital-first agency but meeting clients where they want to be met and always being, you know, the human touch where they need it.

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I saw during your confirmation hearing you said you wanted to make the Social Security Administration a “premier service organization.” That’s not how people usually think about government agencies.

Well, I think technology is a great enabler, and if you take a digital-first mindset, which is how people deal with their daily life today, the idea was: How do we have a web-enabled platform, how do we make it easier for our employees to do their job? Because it’ll be easier for them to serve the American public.

We had a web [site] that was down, I think, 27, 29 hours a week. That’s a lot of people who wanted to contact us technically and couldn’t. Now it’s not down at all. That would be a digital-first agency.

What does a digital-first Social Security Administration look like to the average beneficiary? How would they see it show up?

I think they’d see it show up the way they deal with everything in their life, whether it’s how they interact with Walmart, how they interact with all other types of entities — the ability to have what I call an omni-channel experience. It’s the same in our field offices as it is on the phone as it is on the web. And pick your choice, but you can always use digital first.

And if you look at our volume today, if we’re doing 700 million transactions, the large majority are on the web. We have 100 million digital users right now, signed up.

What do you say to somebody who, when they hear the term “digital first,” they get nervous?

I’d say, Deal with somebody in person. I say, Come to the field office. They’re open. We have not closed one field office under President Trump’s leadership. We were open on [December] 24th and the 26th. Our people volunteered to come in. That talks about the morale of the organization. We have 25,000 people in our field offices, so if you want to come talk to us, come on in.

And you have a commitment to keeping those open?

One hundred percent. We can’t foresee closing a field office. It’s a place where people go. Sometimes they want — it’s their money. We’re dealing with money. We are the largest retirement planning system in the world. We’re in 100 percent of Americans’ retirement plans. We have a very large obligation to be available all the time for the American public, for when they have concerns about things.

You’re encouraging people to get online. Can you talk a little bit about that?

I think it mirrors what the public does today. That’s why our transaction volume on the web is, fundamentally, the large majority of transactions, and then the phones. And yes, people come into field offices, and they have good wait times, but really encouraging them [to go online] because it’s self-serve.

One of the things you talked about during the confirmation hearing was the backlogs. I know at least with disability claims, the backlogs have gone from like a million to 800,000 or something.

A million — 1,240,000, to piercing 800,000 now.

Tell me how you accomplished that.

It’s really about inventory. How much inventory do we have? Are we working down our inventory? Are we doing it — you know, we set out, on every metric we have, we like to talk about, we’re going to set the world record for this number. That’s the journey we’re on. I think having, the first time ever, we have a single chief of disability. We did that on SSI [Supplemental Security Income] also, which is for our most vulnerable [population]. There was nobody in charge.

So leadership matters. We have career executives running these. We bring technology and automation to the workflow. And it’s a constant improvement support for us.

There have also been concerns expressed about data integrity. What can you say to people about their personal data in Social Security?

Well, I’ve spent a career protecting PII [personally identifiable information] in the largest financial institutions in the world. And now I feel like I run the largest financial institution for retirement. The number one identifier for every American is their Social Security number. So our job [is] to have it completely secure. We go through a lot of vulnerability tests, not for any other reason than to make sure nothing’s been gotten into.

So it’s kind of job one to me — privacy, data. It’s a monumental responsibility. And we’ve brought in great leadership. I elevated the jobs of risk to report to me: risk management and cybersecurity. We have two great career executives reporting directly to me.

The other security issue, of course, is the growing number of scams associated with preying on older Americans, or all Americans, trying to get access to their Social Security number. What role can you play? What role can the agency play?

We’re continuing to roll out education. We have a program called Slam the Scam, and we want everybody to really be cautious with their data. If somebody’s calling up asking for your number because they’re from Social Security, that’s not us. I say that loud and proud to everybody.

Social Security will not call?

They’re not going to call you and ask you for your Social Security number and ask you how to get the money out of your bank account. But people can easily be vulnerable to that. I just ask everybody, you know: It’s your information, keep it to yourself and be very, very, very cautious with all your PII and all your financial records.

It’s a huge issue in that the fraudsters are getting so creative.

Yeah. AI will play a great role in doing a lot of things, but it can also be used by criminals.

AI is playing a role in your drive to increase the efficiency of the Social Security Administration. Can you talk a little bit about that?

I like to say that the best way to increase efficiency is to raise quality. Get better outcomes for our clients, do it right the first time. And in a lot of ways, for our people, AI makes their jobs easier. To me, AI is just technology. If you think about the advent of technology, it’s: How do we do it better? How do we use the tools so we don’t have to look in five systems but bring five systems to an employee? Ultimately, that means we’re serving the client faster.

A narrative we hear so much from younger consumers is, Social Security won’t even be there for me. What would you say to them?

I’d say it’s been a promise to pay forever, and my deep belief is we’re here to protect and preserve. Any problems that may be out there have been there before and been solved, right? I take this job as the 18th confirmed commissioner with a deep commitment to run it so darn well that we’re all prepared to invest in the future of every American.

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Bill Walsh is AARP's senior vice president for integrated communications. Before joining AARP, he was an award-winning Washington-based journalist covering politics and health care.