Nearly 2 Million More People Will Need to Visit Social Security Offices Under Revised Policy

After scaling back a controversial new policy that substantially limited phone services, the Social Security Administration (SSA) revealed that even its revised policy will still require nearly 2 million more elderly and disabled people to make in-person visits to Social Security offices each year.

SSA will no longer allow beneficiaries to make changes in their bank information solely by phone, as they have been able to do securely for years. Instead, to change their direct deposit information, a Social Security beneficiary will also need to complete a multi-factor, multi-step online verification process to generate a one-time PIN code to help prove their identity, or else travel in person to a field office. This creates a significant new burden that particularly impacts those who live in rural areas or have transportation or mobility difficulties.

No longer allowing direct deposit changes solely by phone is not justified by compelling evidence. Though SSA claims that the burdensome new policy is intended to reduce fraud, the agency’s own figures show that direct deposit fraud is a very small problem — less than one-hundredth of one percent of benefits are misdirected. Even in those very rare cases, most are not initiated by phone. The only rationale for this burdensome new policy appears to be the “whoppers” that Elon Musk, Vice President JD Vance, and others have been spreading, falsely alleging a widespread problem with direct deposit fraud by phone.

SSA’s revised direct deposit policy is just the latest in a series of rushed, confusing, and chaotic changes to SSA’s telephone services. In April, the agency abruptly stopped allowing direct deposit changes by phone. Now, without any known stakeholder consultation — and with the only public announcement of the new policy affecting tens of millions of elderly and disabled Social Security beneficiaries coming in the form of a technical notice in the Federal Register — SSA is providing less than two weeks’ notice before implementing this new, complicated PIN code requirement. The materials SSA made available on the change in the Federal Register were apparently so confusing that the agency has already had to significantly revise its original submission.

The new PIN code requirement will be impossible for many beneficiaries to meet. Many seniors and people with disabilities lack internet service, computers or smartphones, or the technological savvy to navigate SSA’s online services. The PIN requirement expects callers to complete a multi-step, multi-factor authentication and generate a PIN code while on the phone with an agent. Or if they don’t have an account, they must hang up, establish an online account, then call back — a not-insignificant inconvenience when most callers to SSA do not reach an agent on the first try, and the wait time for a call back from SSA averages 2.5 hours.

It is not surprising that Social Security estimates that half of the people that they have traditionally served by phone for direct deposit changes will not successfully meet the new requirements. As a result, the new policy will require nearly 2 million seniors and people with disabilities to travel to their nearest field office to make direct deposit changes.

Forcing millions more people to seek in-person service for tasks they previously did by phone will create significant burdens on top of those they already face due to years of underfunding at SSA. Many seniors live far from Social Security offices — in fact, our recent analysis found that 6 million live more than a 45-mile trip from their closest one. The difficulty this can pose is especially daunting for people in remote areas. As AARP pointed out, “requiring rural Americans to go into an office can mean [taking] a day off of work [to] drive for hours merely to fill out paperwork.”

Even if they don’t live great distances away, many Social Security beneficiaries experience transportation or mobility barriers that make getting to in-person appointments difficult or burdensome. Nationally, it’s estimated that over 6 million seniors don’t drive, and nearly 8 million report a medical condition or disability that makes it difficult to travel outside the home.

Ultimately, this policy will only worsen wait times in offices as nearly 2 million more people seek in-person assistance from a dwindling and overworked field office staff. SSA reportedly has already cut 7,000 staff — many in front-line jobs — and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is reportedly seeking even deeper staff cuts. 

Forcing millions of seniors and people with disabilities to jump through new hoops is the opposite of improving government efficiency. It will be more costly, cause longer delays, and create more burdens for the people who depend on Social Security. SSA has wisely rolled back its ill-considered policy to stop offering applications by phone; it should do the same for its equally unwise direct deposit policy.