Mark Cuban posted on BlueSky on March 19, 2025, and most people who saw it read it as a complaint about phone hold times. His actual message pointed to something more systematic: a program being made harder to access, one policy at a time, until seniors simply stop claiming what they’re owed.
On BlueSky, Cuban wrote that the Trump administration was removing phone support for Social Security recipients, calling it “a back-door way to cut SS benefits.” His follow-up post on X was more pointed: “End telephone support for Social Security, cut dozens of SS offices and make Grandma and Grandpa finally get online to confirm their payments. What an amazing backdoor way to cut payments!”
Social Security benefits account for about 31% of the income of people over 65, according to the Social Security Administration. Around 12% of men and 15% of women aged 65 and older get 90% or more of their income from Social Security. For that population, a bureaucratic obstacle isn’t an inconvenience. It can mean months without income, unresolved payment errors, or giving up on a benefit application entirely. The dollar amount doesn’t have to change for the damage to be real.
Cuban says Social Security is being weakened in ways that could leave seniors with less without officially reducing their benefits, and he began raising the alarm shortly after the Trump administration took office. A year later, the data backs him up.
The administration is removing phone support for Soc Security recipients. Making it more difficult for seniors to get their checks. It’s a back door way to cut SS benefits. Horrific. If you know anyone who is impacted, please help them get online to get their benefits approved
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 1:40 PM
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The Staffing Crisis Behind the Social Security Warning
From President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 to November of the same year, the SSA’s staff shrank by 6,645 people, a decrease of more than 11% from the end of federal fiscal year 2024. That number continued to climb. The agency ultimately cut more than 7,100 jobs, representing more than 13% of its workforce and its largest staffing cut ever.
In 33 states, the SSA had at least 10% fewer workers in fiscal 2025 compared to 2024. Some states took far heavier blows. Wyoming lost 19% of its staff in 2025, while Missouri and Wisconsin each lost 14%. By early 2026, the situation had worsened further. According to Office of Personnel Management data, 42 states and the District of Columbia saw SSA staff losses greater than 10% between January 2025 and April 2026 – the largest staffing cut in the agency’s history.
The agency closed six of its 10 regional offices, moved more services online, and expanded the use of automated and AI systems on its public phone lines. Removing phone-based access creates friction for less digitally savvy seniors: those who can’t reach a human and don’t have reliable access to online technology risk leaving benefits on the table entirely.
Hiring to replace those workers essentially stopped. The Center for American Progress reported that the agency hired fewer than 100 employees in all of 2025, the lowest number on record – less than 2% of normal annual hiring levels. Thousands of employees resigned, including nearly half of the agency’s senior executives, leading to an unprecedented loss of institutional expertise.
What Fewer Workers Actually Means for You
In a survey of SSA employees conducted in late December 2025 and early January 2026, nearly two-thirds reported that service quality had declined in the past 12 months, while 70% reported that service speed had declined. The survey was conducted by the Strategic Organizing Center and cited by senators including Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand in a formal March 2026 investigation into the SSA’s customer service crisis.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the losses included a drop of more than 3,000 customer service staff who assist visitors to SSA field offices and callers to SSA’s national telephone number. Amid severe complaints about declining service, the SSA stopped publicly releasing regular monthly updates to its service metrics in the summer of 2025, including benchmarks on call wait times.
Appointment availability collapsed. As of August 2025, more than half of retirees and survivors waited over a month for an appointment to apply for benefits. The backlog of pending cases grew in lockstep. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the number of cases pending rose by more than 73,000 from January 2025 to February 2026.
Advocates described overloaded phone lines, missing paperwork, appointment bottlenecks, and growing reliance on automated systems that often failed to resolve problems. “I just have so many cases that are stuck in purgatory because they don’t have enough workers to work them,” said one paralegal interviewed in Social Security’s Kansas City region.
The Planned 50% Cut in Field Office Visits
Beyond current staffing levels, the SSA has signaled that in-person access will shrink further. A November 2025 internal field office operating plan obtained by the Associated Press outlined a proposed target of 50% fewer field office visitors in fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal year 2025. Agency field offices saw more than 31.6 million visits from October 2024 to September 2025. Under the plan, that figure would drop to approximately 15 million.
Soon after Cuban’s original BlueSky post, the SSA clarified that phone services weren’t going away entirely. Callers could still speak with agents about their benefits case, but would no longer be able to make changes to where their benefit payment is deposited. Bank account updates could only be made through the SSA’s “my Social Security” online service using two-factor authentication, or with an in-person visit at a local field office.
The fraud rationale for that restriction is real. At the time of the memo, approximately 40% of Social Security direct deposit fraud involved change requests made by phone. Removing phone-based direct deposit changes is a legitimate fraud prevention measure. But it creates a new access problem for seniors who don’t have reliable internet, who are unfamiliar with two-factor authentication (a security step requiring a second form of identity verification, usually a code sent to your phone), or who live in rural areas where the nearest field office is more than an hour away.
The agency’s shift toward online services has created obstacles for elderly applicants, homeless individuals, and people with cognitive impairments who may not be able to navigate a digital application process.
You can read more about how Trump’s policies are reshaping Social Security in additional detail, including the regional office closures and the ongoing disability claims backlog.
The Larger Stakes: Who Depends on This
Nearly 75 million people receive benefits from the Social Security Administration, with more older adults, people with disabilities, and other claimants becoming eligible each day. The dependency on those benefits is not spread evenly across income levels or circumstances.
In polling conducted by AARP, 20% of those who considered filing or who filed for retirement benefits earlier than planned cited reduced staff or limited access to in-person services at the SSA as a reason, while 17% cited difficulty reaching the SSA online or by phone. Filing early isn’t a neutral choice. Claiming Social Security before full retirement age permanently reduces the monthly benefit for the rest of a recipient’s life. Seniors being pushed to file early because they can’t get help navigating the system are taking a permanent income hit through no fault of their own.
On top of the access crisis, Social Security’s long-term finances remain under pressure. The 2025 Social Security Trustees Report set the depletion date at 2033 for the retirement fund alone. Combined with the disability insurance trust fund, the estimate stretched to 2034. More recent projections have moved those dates closer. For anyone making retirement planning decisions now, these timelines are not abstract.
Read More: Social Security Trust Fund Could Run Dry in 2032 – Here’s What That Means for You
What You Can Do Right Now
The most important immediate step is setting up a free “my Social Security” account at ssa.gov/myaccount. Creating an account takes less than five minutes and lets you securely access benefits, earnings history, and retirement information online. You must be at least 18 years old with a valid email address, and verify your identity using Login.gov or ID.me. The account lets you check your earnings record, estimate future benefits, apply for benefits, and update certain account details without needing a phone call or field office visit.
Effective June 7, 2025, Login.gov and ID.me are the only sign-in options for Social Security’s online services. The previous Social Security username and password option has been removed. If you or a family member hasn’t made this transition yet, do it before a crisis makes it urgent. Check your earnings record carefully once you’re logged in, because benefits are calculated on earned income. Errors in your earnings history can permanently reduce your monthly check, and correcting them is far easier before you file than after.
If you can’t navigate the digital transition alone, go to a field office in person sooner rather than later. Some rural offices have already closed due to staff shortages, and appointment backlogs at open offices can now stretch to three weeks or more.
Cuban’s social security warning comes down to a single practical reality: access to benefits has become a variable rather than a given. The check amount hasn’t changed for most recipients, but the ability to resolve errors, update accounts, or file without months of delay has deteriorated sharply for millions of people. Getting your account set up, verifying your earnings record, and knowing where your nearest open field office is aren’t optional steps anymore. They’re the difference between receiving what you’ve earned and spending months trying to reach someone who can help.
Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional financial advice, investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and is provided for informational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of a qualified financial advisor, accountant, or other licensed professional regarding your personal financial situation or investment decisions. Do not make financial, investment, or tax decisions based solely on information presented here. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and all investments carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.
AI Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a human editor.