Although the Social Security Administration has never missed a payment since it began issuing monthly checks in 1940, some recipients are afraid that they’re on the verge of losing the income that sustains them. It’s a message that they’re hearing a lot, even though the Trump administration says this is not true.
The website of the Grafton County Democrats, a grass-roots organization in central New Hampshire, encourages citizens to protest “the impending demise of our Social Security services and earned benefits.”
In cities and towns across the country, retirees are gathering to hold up signs denigrating Elon Musk and President Donald Trump and chanting “Hands off our Social Security.” Fear about lost or reduced benefits has been at the center of confrontational town halls in Michigan and North Carolina. In Des Moines, seniors waited in line for hours, thinking that they needed to provide documents in order to keep their payments coming — even though they didn’t.
Some scholars say that these seniors’ fear is justified. Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that staffing cuts and the potential for disruption to the Social Security website as it undergoes changes leave recipients vulnerable to problems at a time when fewer people are able to help them. “People are right to be panicked,” she said.
Gallup reported that 52% of Americans say they are worried “a great deal” about Social Security, a figure that “has risen by eight or nine percentage points since last year.” That was before Trump’s announcement about tariffs sent shock waves through 401(k) accounts.
Yet Trump has repeatedly said that he will not reduce Social Security benefits. The White House website repeats that message emphatically and links to video clips where Trump says that Social Security will be strengthened under his administration. Elon Musk has said the same, and even suggested that recipients might stand to receive more money because of the administration’s cost-cutting campaign. The White House has said that some in the media are lying and spreading misinformation and fear. And to the administration’s point, some news coverage does make it seem that cuts to recipients’ payments could be imminent, with headlines like, “Are Social Security checks being delayed? What to know about the April payment schedule” and “How Social Security cuts could put older Americans at risk.”
Both of these articles go on to say that current recipients will receive their checks as scheduled. But these sorts of headlines are helping to spread fear among seniors, as is political rhetoric on the issue — on both sides of the aisle.
Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, for example, recently said his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t call to complain if she missed a Social Security payment and suggested that withholding payments might be a way to weed out fraud. And a former Social Security commissioner, who happens to be a Democrat, has said that a “total system collapse” is coming.
Such talk is understandably frightening to people who rely on Social Security for food, housing and other expenses, especially if they don’t have family members who are able to help if a payment goes missing.
So what’s the truth about what’s happening to Social Security, and what should anyone who depends on it (or will soon depend on it) do to protect their interests?
What has changed with Social Security under Trump?
Over the past two months, the Social Security Administration has issued more than two dozen press releases detailing changes and updates to its operations. Among the changes: the closing of some offices, which The Associated Press estimates will number 26 this year; a reduction in the workforce, from about 57,000 employees to about 50,000; and changes in requirements for identify verification for those who do not have online Security Security accounts. The administration has also said that it will stop issuing paper checks for recipients beginning in September. That change will affect about 456,000 Americans, which is less than 1% of all Social Security recipients, Fortune magazine reported.
The Trump administration has said that stricter verification is needed for people who are applying for benefits or requesting a change in a direct-deposit account, in order to prevent fraud. People who have online accounts can change their direct-deposit information using two-factor authentication but those without online accounts will need to visit a Social Security office to change their bank accounts.
Confusion about this led to long lines at a Des Moines office, The Washington Post reported, with one woman telling a reporter that she just wanted to make sure everything was in order so she didn’t miss a payment. According to Gallup, nearly 6 in 10 retirees say that Social Security is a “major source” of their income.
Elon Musk has said his team has identified more than 10 million active accounts associated with people who are deceased. However, it’s unclear how many of those accounts were simply not updated to reflect the person’s death, as opposed to cases of fraud when payments were ongoing after a person’s death. (Benefits end upon death, and any payment made after a recipient’s death must be reported and returned.)
Some scholars, like Kamarck at Brookings, have challenged the administration’s talk of widespread fraud, saying that fraud represents less than 1% of Social Security’s budget, “far less than what private companies like Mastercard or Visa would accept.”
According to the Associated Press, “A July 2024 report from Social Security’s inspector general states that from fiscal years 2015 through 2022, the agency paid out almost $8.6 trillion in benefits, including $71.8 billion — or less than 1% — in improper payments. Most of the erroneous payments were overpayments to living people.”
Most Americans have said they support the efforts of the Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, although they are less enthused about Elon Musk, according to March polling from NBC. The Washington Post reported that even some people waiting in line outside the Des Moines Social Security office expressed support for cuts, with one retired truck driver saying, “I think the DOGE thing is great.”
In a statement provided to the Deseret News, White House Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said, “With a resounding mandate from the American people, President Trump is moving quickly to fulfill his promise of making the federal government more efficient. He has promised to protect Social Security, and every recipient will continue to receive their benefits.” Additionally, the White House said that that Social Security’s customer service will be improved because nearly all agency staff has been told to return to the office five days a week.
For now, however, some people are finding it difficult to get help. The Washington Post reported that the agency’s website has been unreliable in recent weeks, “with outages lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to almost a day, according to six current and former officials with knowledge of the issues. Even when the site is back online, many customers have not been able to sign in to their accounts — or have logged in only to find information missing. For others, access to the system has been slow, requiring repeated tries to get in.”
Economist Alicia Munnell, founder of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, agrees that the Social Security computer system needs to be modernized, as DOGE has said.
“People have known for a long period of time that this is a 1950s-era computer language that has been held together by loving and caring people with chewing gum and Scotch tape,” Munnell said. But, she added, that’s not a problem that can be fixed overnight, or even in a couple of months, “and they’ve gotten rid of the old guys who know where the chewing gum is.”
“The DOGE people are careless, and there are going to be glitches. My hope is that they don’t last long, and the checks continue to go out,” she said, adding, “This creation of a new computer infrastructure is a good idea. It just needs to be done slowly and methodically.”
Why is the conversation about Social Security so fraught?
In commentary for Brookings, Kamarck said, “One of the smartest moves Donald Trump ever made was promising his supporters that he would not touch their Social Security or Medicare. By making this pledge as explicitly as he did, he distinguished himself from a long line of Republican leaders who appeared to threaten the programs, even though many of them did so out of sincere concern for their fiscal soundness.”
Democrats, she noted, know they can use any threat to Social Security to their advantage, which is why Social Security is sometimes described as one of the “third rails” of American politics — “meaning that touching it could be politically fatal.”
And some Democrats have seized on the fear, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats suggesting that Trump’s ultimate goal is to reduce benefits and privatize the system. Former Social Security Administration commissioner Martin O’Malley, also a Democrat, has gone even farther, telling CNBC, “Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits. I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.”
Nine in 10 Americans age 65 and older receive a payment from Social Security, with the average monthly benefit for retirees being just under $2,000 per month. And yet as important as these payments are to older Americans, they are also one of the largest expenses for the nation, and the cost will continue to grow as the number of Americans 65 and older — 61 million in 2023 — approaches 77 million by 2035.
Analysts say significant reforms are needed to prevent cuts to benefits after 2033, when it’s estimated that the trust fund will be depleted.
On “Meet the Press” recently, Utah Sen. John Curtis reiterated Trump’s stance: Payments will not be cut for people who are currently on Social Security, or nearing retirement.
But, Curtis added, “We’re not being honest when we look people in the eye and say we’re not going to touch it. If we don’t touch it, it touches itself. You know that, right? That’s not being honest with the American people, and I think that’s one of the things that makes them not trust us when we say something that they just know is not true.”
For now, Kamarck said that those who are not yet on Social Security should keep an eye on their earnings record, which determines the amount of future benefits. “The earnings record is the sacred thing at Social Security,” she said. (Workers of any age can open a My Social Security online account here to check their earnings record.)
People who already are receiving benefits should keep a close eye on payments and make sure they’re the right amount. “Be very vigilant,” Kamarck said. “And if there’s any sign of trouble, get in touch with your member of Congress or your senator. What they’re doing is they’re decreasing Social Security’s ability to respond to problems. So if you’ve been on the phone for three hours — don’t wait. Call your senator or call your congressman right away.”
Despite all the turmoil, Munnell, at Boston College, remains optimistic about the future of Social Security long-term. “My sense is that no one wants to see benefits cut across the board, and it will be solved,” she said. “Solving the financing problem is simple. We could put together a package in a half-hour.” Her own preference would be to generate more money for the program with a 1.75% payroll tax for workers and employers, but there are many other options that have been proposed, and she believes that Congress will eventually address the problem. “It’s an easy thing to do, and I think that Congress is going to want to do it in an orderly fashion. The other stuff is just chaos, unnecessary chaos,” Munnell said.