Trump Administration’s Social Security Changes Causing Chaos & Confusion in Maine SSA Offices
The Trump administration’s radical reorganization of the Social Security Administration is causing chaos and confusion in Maine Social Security offices, dramatically increasing wait times and causing stress for both employees and beneficiaries. In order to address record wait timesfor the agency’s 1-800 customer service line, the SSA’s new commissioner, Wall Street billionaire Frank Bisignano, has shifted 1,000 employees from field offices to the national phone lines.
Regional offices have already been struggling with a staffing crisis due to a federal hiring freeze and the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) indiscriminate pushing out of 7,000 SSA workers to hit an arbitrary staffing reduction target. As a result, field offices are now short staffed of service representatives who normally answer the phone and run the front counter, further exacerbating the staffing crisis and increasing wait times.
“A month ago the average wait time in the lobby of our office in Auburn was 16 minutes and following these changes it’s now an hour and half. I cannot tell you how many people I have talked to since July 3rd who were in tears due to the chaos created by this reorganization,” said Christine Lizotte, Secretary Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1164 and a SSA claims representative. “Our field service representatives were only informed on July 2nd that the very next day they would be transferred to the national phone line despite having never received the necessary training on how to handle those calls or how to use the different software. This is only making delays much worse. In addition to running the front desk and the regional office phone lines, our customer service representatives also did death inputs, student inputs and other critical duties. Rather than hiring more staff to solve this staffing crisis, DOGE and the Trump administration simply shifted the deck chairs on the Titanic. We’re struggling to keep up due to the largest staffing cut in SSA’s history and Social Security recipients are suffering.”
The SSA’s new phone system automatically routes callers to the national number if no one answers within one minute, so callers are being transferred all over the regional district, which includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and parts of northern Massachusetts. This makes it extremely difficult for field reps to answer questions from recipients in different states with different laws that impact Social Security.
“In Maine we have a certain clientele that rely on us. We know their stories. We know them and what their needs are and we can get them transferred to the right person,” said Lizotte. “By transferring customer service representatives out of our office, this is causing totally unnecessary stress and confusion for Social Security recipients. Elderly Mainers, people with disabilities and children who have suffered the loss of a parent deserve a Social Security system that is efficient and easily accessible. This is a promise that was made long ago to every American and it must be kept.”