Acting Social Security Chief Says Agency Moves Will ‘Prioritize Customer Service’

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) told AARP this week that the agency is committed to improving customer service as it moves quickly to cut costs and reduce its workforce.

“We are identifying efficiencies and reducing costs, with a renewed focus on mission-critical work,” Leland Dudek wrote March 4, answering questions posed by AARP in a letter to the SSA last month. “These steps prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, reducing non-mission critical work and potential reassignment of employees to customer service positions.”

The SSA announced plans in late February to eliminate about 7,000 jobs — 12.3 percent of the current staff — as part of a major restructuring that has already seen several offices within the agency shut down. Leases have been terminated for dozens of local Social Security facilities in more than 20 states, according to a March 3 SSA statement and a listing on the website of the U.S. DOGE Service, the agency established by President Donald Trump to reduce federal spending.

Dudek’s answers came on the same day he met with a group of advocates, including AARP representatives, to discuss “meaningful program changes to simplify our program complexities and increase efficiency,” as he put it in his written response.

Asked if the SSA had plans to close or relocate any of the more than 1,200 Social Security field offices that serve customers at the community level, Dudek wrote, “SSA is committed to ensuring that all Americans can get the help they need whether that is in our field offices, telephone or through automated solutions.”

"We appreciate the acting commissioner getting back to us so quickly and being so open to the feedback from AARP members, and I'm glad he understands how concerned our members are about all these changes,” says Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president for government affairs. “Just this week, Social Security shared a few more details about how they're working to improve customer service and bring down call wait times."

‘Read-only’ access to SSA data

More than 68 million Americans receive Social Security and 183 million workers pay into it. Thousands of Americans have raised concerns about the security of their personal data.

In his response to AARP’s questions, Dudek reiterated prior statements that the SSA has provided DOGE personnel with only “read-only access” to its data systems, which contain personal information such as tax and banking records on tens of millions of Americans.