The percentage of Social Security and Medicare benefit applications being processed within two weeks has declined sharply since President Donald Trump took office.
New data, released by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on March 17, shows that 80.7 percent of applicants received benefits on time or within two weeks in February, down from 85.6 percent in January. The drop is the largest seen in the past two years.
Newsweek has contacted the SSA for comment.
A Social Security Administration office in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Why It Matters
Democrats and former SSA officials have warned that sweeping cuts proposed by Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could have serious impacts on the agency.
At the end of February, the SSA announced it would cut 7,000 positions and close some of its regional offices.
Martin O’Malley, a former SSA commissioner during Joe Biden‘s administration, said in February according to The Washington Post: “At this rate, they [DOGE] will break it. And they will break it fast, and there will be an interruption of benefits.”
What To Know
The data released by the SSA on Monday reflects the processing time for people applying for retirement, survivor and Medicare programs. It does not include processing and payment times for disability benefit applications.
The last time that the percentage of people receiving these benefits within two weeks fell to a lower level was in May 2023 on 80.3 percent.
The data also shows that processing reached a peak in October 2024, with 87 percent of applicants receiving benefits within two weeks. This then fell to 85 percent by the end of January, at which point Trump had just returned to the White House.
The SSA said that in a typical year more than 6 million new customers sign up for retirement, survivor, and Medicare programs.
According to the agency, 2.81 million claims for these benefits have been completed so far in 2025. Meanwhile, there were 545,428 outstanding claims still being processed at the end of February.
What People Are Saying
Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek said in a statement on February 28: “The agency plans to reduce the size of its bloated workforce and organizational structure, with a significant focus on functions and employees who do not directly provide mission critical services. Social Security recently set a staffing target of 50,000, down from the current level of approximately 57,000 employees.”
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement to Newsweek: “Radically reducing SSA staff is outrageous and irresponsible—and would devastate customer service to beneficiaries. There is no reason for slashing SSA’s workforce, other than the ideological crusade of Trump and Musk to hollow out the agency that administers our most-popular social insurance program—and privatize as much of the federal government as they possibly can.”
What Happens Next
Data for processing times is released on a monthly basis.
The SSA’s plans to cut 7,000 staff members and close a number of field offices across multiple states will be carried out over the coming months, unless legal challenges put a hold on the action.