Latest news with #FrankBisignano
Newsweek
7 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Social Security Update: Major Change for Benefit Recipients
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced a significant upgrade for millions of Americans: The My Social Security online portal will offer 24/7 access starting mid-July. The change marks a major improvement in customer service, allowing beneficiaries and applicants to manage their Social Security accounts at any time, day or night. Why It Matters Social Security remains a critical pillar for more than 60 million Americans, whose financial security often depends on timely access to the program's resources. Until now, the online portal has experienced scheduled downtimes, limiting access for retirees and those seeking to manage their benefits or documentation. This shift to uninterrupted access comes amid mounting financial pressures on the Social Security system and broader concerns about the program's sustainability, particularly as the trust fund's money for full payments is set to run out within the next decade without legislative intervention. What To Know The revamped My Social Security portal is designed to give both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries around-the-clock access to their accounts. Through the portal, users can request replacement Social Security cards, upload documents, submit online forms, and manage critical features such as direct deposit information, tax forms, and benefit verification letters. Non-beneficiaries can also check application statuses and access personalized estimates of their or their spouse's benefits, according to the SSA. "My top priority is to transform SSA into a model of excellence—an organization that operates at peak efficiency and delivers outstanding service to every American," SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in a statement. A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, D.C. A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, D.C. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images This initiative is part of a larger overhaul at the SSA aimed at addressing long-standing issues, such as backlogs and lengthy wait times, which have been exacerbated by the growing number of baby boomer retirees. Beyond the online upgrade, SSA reports that 70 percent of its field offices have new phone technology, the answering speed for its 800-number has improved by 35 percent, and 90 percent of calls can now be handled through self-service or with a convenient callback feature. "Currently, there are late-night and weekend hours when the portal is closed. Many elderly beneficiaries rely on family or service providers to make online updates, so the expanded service hours will only help those who are helping our seniors," Drew Powers, the founder of Illinois-based Powers Financial Group, told Newsweek. What People Are Saying Martha Shedden, president and co-founder of the National Association of Registered Social Security Analysts, told Newsweek: "We welcome any improvements SSA makes to customer service, particularly phone service wait times and field office staffing increases. The web portal plays a significant role in customer service." Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek: "The online portal reflects an evolving form of connecting with beneficiaries centered on more efficiency and modernness. The Social Security Administration, much like other government entities, has long been the subject of mixed feedback from beneficiaries who struggle with issues of applying for benefits, receiving them, and everything in between." Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek: "Now, anytime there's a tech upgrade in the Social Security system, I'll call that a win. But let's be real; most retirees probably won't notice a huge difference. Many still prefer the phone or that personal touch. That said, improvements to the phone system will help save time and still give folks that human connection if they need it." What Happens Next The SSA's portal upgrade is scheduled to go live in mid-July, providing uninterrupted service nationwide. Officials say this move is intended to help meet the needs of current and future beneficiaries as the agency also faces broader questions about the solvency of Social Security before the projected trust fund depletion in 2033. "The hope is this new portal will remedy some of those problems, but in terms of effectiveness and its appeal to non-digitally literate recipients, it remains to be seen if benefits will outweigh any issues," Beene said.
Washington Post
10-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Social Security pulls field office staff to answer overwhelmed phone line
The Social Security Administration is surging staff to its customer service phone operations in the latest effort to address a massive influx of calls that has overwhelmed its struggling 1-800 number. The agency said it is temporarily reassigning about 1,000 customer service representatives from field offices to work on the swamped toll-free phone line, increasing the number of agents by 25 percent. Social Security's new commissioner, Frank Bisignano, is attempting to reduce phone wait times after customers complained of dropped calls, the website has repeatedly crashed and thousands of workers left the agency under the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service. But Jessica LaPointe, president of Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the move will slow responses to the complex cases that the field office employees handle and be only a temporary bandage for the phone problems. The union said it has heard from workers at several offices that no longer have customer service representatives available due to the change. 'The 1-800 number — they do offer a critical role at the agency, but it's triage, whereas customer service representatives actually clear work for the agency,' LaPointe said. 'So it's just going to create a vicious cycle of work not getting cleared, people calling for status on work that's sitting because the claims specialists now are going to have to pick up the slack of the customer service representatives that are redeployed to the tele-service centers.' Social Security spokesman Stephen McGraw said that the change affects 4 percent of field office staff and that it isn't clear how long it will last. 'The agency expects that successful implementation of this initiative will accelerate the improvement in the 800 Number average speed of answer so far this year,' McGraw wrote in an email, referring to the amount of time a caller has a phone to their ear. 'Beyond enhancing service on the 800 Number, this initiative supports the agency's broader customer service strategy by enabling more flexible, real-time allocation of staff to meet the most pressing service demands.' Social Security, which serves 73 million beneficiaries, has attempted to improve customer service in other ways as well, such as moving the phone agents' hours to an 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. schedule — ending a more flexible system that allowed employees to work any span of eight hours between 7:30 and 5:30 p.m. But that initiative has accomplished little except to drive down morale, employees said, while disability and retirement advocates said the phone experience has worsened. Last month, the agency stopped publicly reporting the toll-free number's call wait times and other performance metrics, which Bisignano later told lawmakers might discourage people from calling and getting help. Through a phone system that rolled out last year, about 90 percent of callers now use a callback feature that lets them wait for a representative without staying on hold or use automated self-service options. Thirty percent of the calls require no employee intervention, McGraw said. Social Security officials said the callback feature has given people the option to not wait on the phone as long, resulting in those customers spending less time actually on the phone. However, internal statistics obtained by The Washington Post show Social Security is struggling to handle the number of calls coming into the 1-800 number — which have risen since President Donald Trump took office. The agency has seen more than 8.6 million calls each month on average between January and June 2025, the data show. Calls peaked at more than 10 million in March, apparently driven by fears among many elderly recipients that DOGE was intent on reducing their benefits, as The Post previously reported. There were also more calls after the January implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act, which increased the size of some beneficiaries' checks. The agency's new phone system also has capacity for more calls. By contrast, for the same time period in the last year of the Biden administration — January to June 2024 — the number of average monthly calls was about 6.6 million, the data show. At the same time, the amount of time that callers who ring the national number wait on hold or in a queue before speaking to an agent has risen. For the last three full months of the Biden administration, callers waited an average of 75 minutes. For the first five months of the Trump administration, callers have waited an average of 93 minutes. The agency instituted a new phone callback system in late 2024, meaning there is no comparable wait-time data from earlier in the Biden administration. The early months of the year tend to see higher call volumes and higher wait times every year, McGraw said. This is not the first time that Social Security has repositioned employees to handle greater demands on the system. In April, the agency said it had reassigned about 2,000 employees to what it considered 'front line' positions in an effort to increase staffing in more public-facing roles. The crop of inexperienced administrative and technical employees were pulled from central offices in a bid to repair staff losses, sowing confusion all around, The Post previously reported. Social Security has aimed to shed 7,000 positions, reducing the workforce to 50,000. Forty of the agency's approximately 1,200 field offices lost at least a quarter of the office staff, and a dozen lost more than a third, according to early April figures listed on a now-deleted agency webpage. Kathleen Romig, a former Social Security official who is now at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the move shifting employees to the phones is unsurprising considering the greater public scrutiny of wait times and a diminished staff that has left leaders with fewer options. Romig has estimated that there are now 1,480 beneficiaries for each staff member — an unprecedented workload compared to the ratio of 480 beneficiaries for every staff member in 1967, the last time Social Security had this few employees. 'You start running the agency with not enough people to go around, then the only way you can get on top of a problem is to play musical chairs like this,' Romig said. Several Social Security employees agree that shifting staff around will fail to repair the main problem: The agency let go of too many staffers. 'They forced the early retirement of thousands of people, and this is the result,' said one employee in a field office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Worse, the field office employee said, the change will probably slow the agency down in other ways. Because of the shift, several staff in their office will now have to spend their time working the phones instead of working on claims, the employee said. 'So look for claims processing times to increase, and wait times for appointments,' the employee said. McGraw said field offices have claims representatives who can help with the customer service representative's workload. The staffing changes come shortly after Bisignano instituted another change: In late June, Social Security implemented a policy requiring all phone agents to be in their seats answering phones from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to the analyst and records obtained by The Post. The idea behind the change was to ensure all phone agents start sufficiently early so that calls never build up, the analyst said. But ironically, it has instead meant fewer agents are available first thing in the morning, because workers are now prevented from starting their jobs at 7:30 a.m., as they were able to do under the prior flexible system, the analyst said. In the roughly three weeks since the change, phone answering speed has not improved, the analyst and internal data show. The latest revision, moving staff around to answer phones, 'is just shuffling deck chairs, robbing Peter to pay Paul. … Bisignano is throwing whatever he can at the problem to make the speed of answer number look better,' the analyst said. 'We're trying to fix one problem by creating a new one.'
Fast Company
08-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
A Social Security email praised Trump's tax bill—but experts say it lied
Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' has a lot of moving parts, but one thing it won't do is end taxes on Social Security benefits, as he has claimed. The bill, which passed last week, slashes Medicaid, food stamps and clean energy incentives to pay for a huge package of Republican priorities, including staffing up ICE and extending tax cuts from Trump's first term. It also makes some changes to Social Security, but the truth is more complex than what Trump is touting. In a press release last week, the White House declared that 'No tax on social security is a reality' under the new bill. 'Promises made, promises kept,' the White House wrote. To further muddy the waters, the Social Security Administration praised the Republican mega-bill in a mass email blast rife with misleading claims to more than 60 million Americans. 'For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans,' Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, a former fintech CEO appointed by Trump to lead the agency, wrote. In the email, the agency claimed the new bill 'eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries' and described it as a 'historic step forward for America's seniors.' 'The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits, providing meaningful and immediate relief to seniors who have spent a lifetime contributing to our nation's economy,' the email stated. The problem? The bill doesn't actually change the tax code to end taxes for Social Security benefits. And you wouldn't know it from the grand language in the email, but the tax relief it does provide comes with an expiration date that's just a few years away. For a workhorse agency that generally stays in its lane and doesn't wade directly into political discussions, the Social Security Administration email's tone was enough to raise eyebrows among some recipients. On top of that, the departure from communication norms also set off alarms for some seniors who are wary of being targeted by phishing schemes after years of being warned about exactly that. What the bill actually does While it doesn't actually eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security benefits, the bill does add a new, temporary bonus tax deduction that many seniors over 65 can claim. It offers single filers with an income below $75,000 an additional $6,000 deduction or couples making less than $150,000 a $12,000 deduction. The deduction phases out incrementally above those levels and cuts off above $175,000 for single filers and $250,000 for couples. The new senior bonus deduction will only be in effect from tax years 2025 to 2028, unless Congress intervenes to extend it. The temporary bonus deduction can reduce overall income tax for some seniors, but it is not a direct tax cut on Social Security benefits, nor will it apply to everyone who receives Social Security. The new deduction won't apply to recipients between the ages of 62 and 64 — around 5% of people who receive Social Security — nor will it move the needle for high earners or Social Security recipients with an income too low to be taxed to begin with. The new bonus deduction is expected to mostly affect middle and upper middle income households that fall within its income parameters. In the short term, fewer Social Security recipients will owe taxes on their benefits, though more than 60% of them already didn't owe taxes on those benefits prior to the bill according to analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Short term thinking The new temporary deduction for seniors will give some households a tax reprieve, but like the Big Beautiful Bill's other core achievements, those tax perks may come at a steep cost. Taxes to Social Security were first implemented in 1983 to improve the federal benefit program's long term health. That revenue is specifically earmarked for trusts that benefit Medicare and Social Security, which means any reduction to the tax revenue generated by those taxes takes a bite out of the program itself. The Social Security program is a lifeline for retirement-age Americans, but those benefits as we know them are hurtling toward extinction. Unless a dramatic intervention succeeds, millions of retirees expected to see their benefits shrinking by 2033. But with Trump's Big Beautiful Bill signed into law, that looming insolvency date just inched one year closer, according to new analysis.
Newsweek
08-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
Social Security Hits Major Milestone for Millions
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has confirmed it has completed sending payments to those who were impacted by the Social Security Fairness Act, five months ahead of schedule. Why It Matters Under the Biden administration, the federal agency, which pays benefits to tens of millions every month, said the process of issuing new and backdated payments could take considerably longer. At the time, the SSA told Newsweek it was "determining the timelines for implementing this new law." What To Know In January, lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill that repealed two provisions—the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO)—that limited retirement benefits for certain workers, including teachers, firefighters, and police officers, some federal employees, and their spouses. The agency first started issuing these payments in February. The new payments included updated benefits amount and backdated payments to January 2024. Despite previous longer timelines being for implementation, the SSA has now confirmed it has sent out 3.1 million payments to those impacted by the repeal of the WEP and GPO. To date, over $17 billion in payments has been distributed. The WEP reduced Social Security benefits for individuals who received pensions from public-sector jobs—such as state or federal positions—that did not require paying Social Security payroll taxes. This reduction applied even if they also worked in jobs where they paid into Social Security and qualified for benefits. The GPO lowered spousal or survivor benefits for retired federal, state, or local government workers who had not contributed to Social Security through payroll taxes. File photo: The Social Security Administration sign is seen on a field office building in San Jose, California, in 2020. File photo: The Social Security Administration sign is seen on a field office building in San Jose, California, in 2020. GETTY Other Changes The SSA also said it has made "significant progress in its ongoing efforts to improve customer service," including upgrading telephone systems in 841 field offices—70 percent nationwide—and cut the average wait time on its 800 Number to 13 minutes, a 35 percent drop from last year. A new service model in field offices has reduced wait times by 10 percent year-over-year, the agency reported, and the initial disability claims backlog has been cut by 25 percent, from 1.2 million to 950,000 cases. Disability hearings have reached a low of 276,000 still pending, with wait times down by 60 days compared to last summer, the agency added. What People Are Saying SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in the press release: "My top priority is to transform SSA into a model of excellence—an organization that operates at peak efficiency and delivers outstanding service to every American. "The American people have waited long enough for better service, and they deserve the absolute best from their government. I am deeply grateful to our dedicated employees who are already making this turnaround a reality." What Happens Next The SSA said the agency is continuing to make improvements across its services.
Forbes
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
New Social Security Commissioner Politicizes The Trusted Agency
Politicizing Social Security Will Hurt The System On July 3rd, just before fireworks lit up the skies, a quieter explosion took place in the inboxes of Social Security stakeholders, observers, and experts across the country. See New York Times' Tara Siegal Bernard's coverage. It was a Social Security blog -- oddly celebratory, unusually partisan and containing inaccurate statements -- from the brand-new Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), Frank Bisignano. Titled 'Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors,' the statement praised the so-called 'One Big, Beautiful Bill,' President Trump's signature 2025–2026 budget bill, which happens to be one of the most unpopular pieces of recent legislation: only 29% of Americans support the bill; 49% oppose it. Social Security Statement Is Wrong But there's a problem: the bill doesn't do anything directly to Social Security and the blog said it did, 'The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples.' That statement is wrong. And, indirectly, the bill will hurt seniors through Social Security and Medicare cuts. To be sure, the legislation includes a more generous standard deduction for middle and upper class seniors but it didn't – and couldn't – touch Social Security's taxes on income. That's because under the Senate's Byrd Rule, reconciliation bills can't include provisions that don't directly impact the federal budget. A Social Security Commissioner should know that. I was disappointed that one of Commissioner Frank Bisignano's first public statements was inaccurate. The Social Security Administration plays a vital role in the lives of millions, and its leadership must be supported by expert staff and guided by a clear, accurate understanding of the program's mission and structure. I thought this was a rookie mistake. However, other trends and policies affecting Social Security suggest the agency is becoming increasingly politicized, which may explain its glowing endorsement of a partisan and unpopular piece of legislation. A Shift From A Trustworthy Social Security Administration To A Politicized One For 90 years, the SSA has enjoyed a rare status in American government: trusted, efficient, and above the political fray. Checks were mailed on time. Customer service was once rated among the highest in the American Customer Satisfaction Index – until relentless budget cuts started to degrade it. A reason for the trust is that traditionally, SSA Commissioners have remained neutral on legislation unless it directly affected Social Security's rules, administration, or benefit structure. Mr. Bisignano, a respected former Mastercard executive and Trump appointee to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, is widely praised for his strong private-sector background in financial systems and digital payments. But with no prior experience in public administration, he may not yet understand the unique trust SSA must maintain as a nonpartisan agency. So, I'll say it again: this doesn't feel like a rookie mistake—it feels more like part of a troubling pattern. Economist Kathleen Romig, from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities lays out how the Trump administration is politicizing the Social Security Administration in ways that threaten its core mission. The Trump administration's proposal to allow the President to unilaterally reclassify civil servants as 'policy-influencing," strips them of traditional job protections and undermines the expectation of their political neutrality. The change would enable the administration to fire, demote, or reduce the pay of thousands of federal employees without due process, regardless of performance. Critics warn this would lead to unprecedented politicization of the U.S. civil service. To punctuate the trend of politicization, Romig points out that in 2024 the Social Security Administration had roughly one political appointee for every 3000 civil servants. The proposed Trump rule would change that ratio to 1 in every 5 civil servant staff. Which is a 500 times increase in political appointment saturation. And as the political concentration of Social Security employees increases, the number of experienced civil servants assisting Social Security beneficiaries falls: SSA's operating budget fell by 13% from 2010 to 2023, adjusted for inflation, while the number of beneficiaries grew by 21%. Further politicizing the Social Security Administration, the agency has ended its cooperative agreements with the Retirement and Disability Research Centers', disrupting its longstanding tradition of supporting impartial research and analysis – cutting funding for six universities (including ours): University of Wisconsin, Boston College, NBER, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, and CUNY and The New School. Politicizing Social Security threatens not only SSA's effectiveness but also the public's trust. There is strong evidence that people's fear of Elon Musk and DOGE's control of Social Security caused people to claim their benefits early thus reducing their lifetime benefits. The Big Beautiful Bill Accelerates Social Security Insolvency From 2033 to 2032 The most recent 2025 Social Security Trustees Report forecasted a 23% benefit cut if no new revenue is added by 2033 – just eight years from now. But the recent partisan and unpopular bill (no Democrat voted for it) will accelerate insolvency to 2032, seven years from now. Without the bill, the taxation of benefits would have added $140 billion to the Social Security and Medicare Trust fund by 2027, because the first Trump 2017 tax cuts would have expired and higher-income seniors would have paid higher Social Security benefit taxes according to the conservative think tank, Committee for A Responsible Federal Budget. 2032 is not a distant cliff—it's a steep drop for current and future Social Security beneficiaries who are already under strain. Retirement Inequality Is Stark And Social Security Is In Trouble: No Time To Politicize It Social Security is absolutely essential. It currently supports 73.6 million Americans, including retirees, disabled workers, and survivors. For over half of older beneficiaries, it supplies more than half of their income. For one in four, it is nearly their only income. Yet the average benefit is just $1,976 per month, barely above the poverty line. A 23% cut would be a humanitarian disaster. As my coauthor, Drystan Phillips, of the Retirement Equity Lab at The New School documents, America's retirement system has been unraveling for 40 years. Traditional pensions have disappeared. Savings have stalled. Long-term care is unaffordable. The experiment in 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans has largely failed. The New School's report shows: The Stakes Are Too High: Social Security Can't Be Politicized Social Security is not a side program. Politicizing the SSA risks more than norms of communication – politicizing the program for short term political points threatens the most effective anti-poverty program in U.S. history and the most important source of retirement income for most Americans (see footnote) by undermining the effectiveness and accuracy of the program and the public's trust in the institution. There are simple and well-known revenue solutions that could prevent these cuts and even improve benefits. Let's hope Commissioner Bisignano channels his considerable private-sector acumen and takes up and embraces the responsibility of his post to fight hard for Social Security's solvency – not just praise political bills. Many experts and stakeholders can help and encourage him. American workers, seniors, and their dependents can't afford a benefit cut. Retirement security is already threadbare. We are down to the bone.
