07/25/2025
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release on Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Barton Mackey Press Office
press.office@ssa.gov
Social Security Gains Momentum: Meeting Customer Needs Online, on the Phone, and In-Person
Increased capacity through new technology allows SSA to serve more customers at greater speed
The Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced substantial progress in service delivery outcomes resulting from focused technology enhancements and process engineering. These improvements reflect Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano’s strategic vision to modernize SSA’s customer service—meeting people where they are, addressing customer needs at the first point of contact, and improving outcomes across all channels.
“Our vision is centered on providing outstanding service that works for everyone we serve—whether they call, walk into a field office, or choose to manage their benefits online,” said Commissioner Bisignano. “We are transforming the customer experience, investing in technology to build frontline capacity, and using real-time data to monitor performance across the board. We are delivering higher levels of customer service—and this will continue.”
With the implementation of new telephone technology on the National 800 Number and in SSA field offices, along with process engineering and better strategic resource alignment, SSA has expanded its capacity to handle work on the phones and in its field offices, resulting in improved service to the American people. Recent accomplishments include:
• SSA is handling more calls with a faster response time. The agency handled nearly 1.3 million calls on the National 800 Number last week, or 70 percent more than the same week last fiscal year, while reducing the average speed of answer to 6 minutes. This response time is down from an average of 18 minutes so far this year and 30 minutes last year, or an 80 percent reduction.
• SSA is reducing field office wait times. The agency reduced the wait time in field offices to 23 minutes so far this year, compared to 30 minutes last year, or a 23 percent reduction.
SSA has also improved service for its customers online by eliminating the longstanding scheduled downtime of 29 hours a week for my Social Security. This enhancement has already enabled 125,000 more customers to access their online accounts in the first week.
These continued improvements across all of SSA’s customer service channels come just two weeks after the agency announced it completed sending over 3.1 million payments, totaling over $17 billion, to beneficiaries eligible under the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA), 5 months ahead of schedule. When the SSFA became law on January 5, 2025, SSA identified about 2.8 million current Social Security beneficiaries whose benefits were reduced because of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) or Government Pension Offset (GPO), including firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other critical public servants. The agency successfully completed actions on these beneficiaries’ records exceeding its original estimate of it taking a year or more.
At the same time, SSA has driven down disability backlogs. The initial disability claims backlog has been reduced to 940,000 pending cases—down from a record of over 1.2 million last year, or a 25 percent reduction. Average processing time has improved to five days faster than before Commissioner Bisignano’s tenure. SSA has also maintained historic lows of disability hearings pending, with average wait times reduced by 60 days since June 2024.
Commissioner Bisignano’s modernization agenda is designed to improve customer experience, foster operational agility, and build trust in government service. The agency remains committed to measuring what matters and flexibly deploying resources to sustain progress.
“Our strategy is clear: serve customer needs quickly and completely, no matter how they contact us,” said Commissioner Bisignano. “We will continue to evaluate our tools, technology, and processes to empower our workforce to provide best-in-class customer service to the American people.”
For more information about Social Security’s services, visit www.ssa.gov.
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