Social Security services to worsen despite budget boost, agency head says

The Social Security Administration’s already faltering services will further erode this year despite a $785 million boost to its budget, the agency’s acting head has told lawmakers.

In a letter sent Feb. 10 to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees, acting Social Security commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi said she expects already significant delays in disability benefits claims and phone assistance to worsen in 2023.

Although the extra funding Congress added in December to the agency’s $13.3 billion budget aimed to ease those problems by increasing staffing to improve phone operations and reduce record backlogs in the disability system, Kijakazi said it will take significant time to see improvements.

While the extra funding “will allow us to maintain essential services, improve staffing, and continue working through backlogs,” Kijakazi said in the letter, “some performance measures will show improvement in [fiscal] 2023, while others may show temporary degradation.” She cited employee losses across the agency during the coronavirus pandemic that have weakened service, which could take years to bounce back.

“We expect that improved customer wait times and increased employee capacity may not be fully realized until FY 2024,” she said in the letter.

Advocates said that message is disheartening from an agency that has struggled since the pandemic started to meet the needs of millions of Americans, particularly the disabled and elderly.

“The message seems to be, ‘We’re doing great, but everything is getting worse,’” said Charles Hall, a disability attorney in Raleigh, N.C., and founder of a blog on Social Security operations.

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