Could Social Security beneficiaries soon face more hurdles?

After a public backlash against the Social Security Administration (SSA) earlier this year, the federal agency said it would walk back some of its plans that would’ve required more beneficiaries to make in-person office visits.

But a report released this week by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan research group, counteracts some of these claims. The group said that SSA will be moving forward with a new policy in August that will force beneficiaries to make “millions of unnecessary trips to field offices, where they will face longer waits for appointments and slower processing times.”

In a blog post published Tuesday, Kathleen Romig and Devin O’Connor of the CBPP said that the SSA is enacting new requirements that are set to go into effect Aug. 18. These changes will force Social Security beneficiaries to use a multifactor authentication process to verify their identities online — an additional step for anyone seeking to “perform routine tasks solely by phone.”

The report said the changes will impact anyone looking to change their address, check the status of claims, request verification of benefits or obtain tax forms. Seniors account for a large portion of the 32 million visitors to SSA offices last year.

Anyone seeking to complete these tasks by phone will be required to generate a one-time PIN code as part of the identity verification process. But Romig and O’Connor say that this process “will be impossible for many beneficiaries to complete.” In many cases, this will force them to travel to field offices.

“That will require 3.4 million more people to travel to SSA offices annually, by the agency’s own estimates,” the report stated. “This will create a significant new burden, particularly for those who live in rural areas or have transportation or mobility difficulties.”

In a emailed statement to HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD), an SSA spokesperson said the agency’s filing with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “will be amended to clarify that the use of the Security Authentication PIN (SAP) feature is entirely optional” but encouraged for Social Security account holders when calling its national 800 number.

“Beneficiaries and my Social Security accountholders are not required to set up or have a SAP for identity verification or manage their benefits over the phone — when calling the National 800 Number, they will continue to use the existing identity verification process,” the spokesperson stated. “Beneficiaries and my Social Security accountholders will not be required to visit a field office if they do not choose to use the SAP feature.”

The reported closure of dozens of SSA field offices across the country could have made conditions even more difficult for beneficiaries forced to travel to a physical office. That news, which came to light in March 2025, was reportedly driven by the U.S. DOGE Service and Elon Musk, its leader at the time.

The SSA issued a statement shortly after that and called the reports false.

“SSA is committed to providing service where people need help and our local field offices are no exception,” Lee Dudek, SSA’s acting commissioner, said at the time. “We have not permanently closed any local field offices this year.”

In April, AARP published a report in which the senior advocacy group said SSA was looking to cut 7,000 jobs, dialing back its total headcount to 50,000. The cuts were expected to be felt most acutely at some 40 local offices that were losing at least 25% of their employees. Three smaller offices — in Wisconsin, Missouri and Minnesota — were reportedly shedding at least half of their staff.

In regard to the coming changes to phone-based customer service requests, the CBPP accused the Trump administration of “rushing these changes with almost no public notice or feedback.” It added that SSA “has provided no clear justification for the change other than vaguely citing ‘fraud risk,’ despite there being no publicly documented problems with completing any of these tasks by phone.”

The SSA has since appointed a full-time commissioner, Frank Bisignano, who previously served as chairman and CEO of Fiserv, a mortgage origination technology systems provider.

Last week, the SSA issued a press release that lauded the agency’s recent improvements to customer service efforts. It reportedly responded to 1.3 million calls to its national 800 number during a recent week, a 70% year-over-year increase.  

The agency also reported that it reduced its average call response time to six minutes, down from 30 minutes a year ago, while cutting wait times at field offices by 23%.

“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,” Bisignano said in a statement. “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.”