Commissioner Bisignano Sends End of Year Letter to Congress
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: November 24, 2025
With the close of Fiscal Year 2025, Commissioner Frank Bisignano sent an update to Congress on the tremendous progress being made at the Social Security Administration (SSA). President Trump’s pledge to protect and preserve Social Security guides our mission to transform SSA into a digital-first agency that operates at peak efficiency and provides world-class service to every American. By empowering our workforce, thinking differently about our service channels, and embracing technology, we are building the operational foundation that will support our success for years to come.
As a result of the hardworking, dedicated employees at SSA, we have made improvements across each of our service channels. We reduced wait times on our National 800 Number from 28 minutes in Fiscal Year 2024 to just 15 minutes in Fiscal Year 2025, while serving 65 percent more callers. In-office wait times decreased by nearly 27 percent from 30 minutes to 22 minutes since the last fiscal year. Visitors who had a scheduled appointment only waited around 6 minutes on average to receive assistance.
SSA also successfully reduced the initial disability claims backlog that had reached record highs last year. In June 2024, there were 1.26 million pending claims. That backlog has now been decreased to 865,000. We further reduced the initial claim average processing time by 13 percent to 209 days from the previous 240 days at the beginning of the year.
To further our efforts to transform SSA into a digital-first agency, enhancements were made to expand the services available through personal my Social Security accounts, allowing users to easily manage their benefits online. The growth in new account holders, combined with the increased engagement on the value of doing business online, enabled a nearly 20 percent increase in online transactions in Fiscal Year 2025 compared to the prior year. To build on these gains, SSA set a bold goal to expand to 200 million my Social Security account holders by the end of 2026. If you have not done so already, we encourage you to sign up today for a personal my Social Security account.
Commissioner Bisignano stated in the letter that we will build upon our progress and continue to modernize our services with support from Congress. Read the letter to learn more about the incredible work SSA is doing to ensure that our programs and services remain a source of economic stability for generations to come.
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greg
I fear this an alternate reality of a skewed view of a select sample of chosen data.
As well fear if I express my 1st Amendment right of free speech, , I will be punished.
So, 5 stars to the SSA
Diane M.
The changes to the SSA website is so amazing! It was so easy to fill out forms online and attach documents. I’m so impressed with the work that has been completed within the first year! I normally had to fill out any forms and drive them to the local SSA office because they seem to always get lost in the process. I just submitted my SSA form over the weekend and hopefully it will be reviewed quickly as well.
Thank you so much for making the process non stressful and user friendly! I’m so appreciative.
Christie R.
Having reading some of the comments from Social Security recipients, I can see why this has been a great country for the past nearly 250 years. We are a courageous, tough, intelligent people who love this country. We are also tired of the rich getting richer, and we are going to change that. How many millions of dollars has the wanna be dicktator, his family, and his new friends accumulated since January 2025 while we got our small but legal raise? The country wants that money back. It’s ours after all, and we shall have it eventually. Just you wait, sang the king.
Doree F.
I do not believe that Trump has our interests at heart. He promised not to touch Social Security but his actions do not match his words. The Doge dismantling of SS alone begs to differ. I do not believe anyone left in any departments that he let Elon Musk and DOGE dismantle. And for example I’m wondering how many of the 865,000 decreased claims were outright denied.
As for suppport from Congress — at this point you mean republicans that err on the side of the wealthy. So those are just “some” of my thoughts on the “new SS department.”
cc
I suspect the esteemed commissioner is disregarding any statistics on all the people who gave up waiting on the phone because they did not have time to hold.
And please show us the statistics on the people who did not have to wait in an office AT ALL because they were unable to even GET an appointment in an office, at a time when they had an available friend or relative to drive them to the office.
Todd P.
Impressive accomplishments. Made all the more remarkable, if not difficult to believe, given that thousands and thousands of SSA employees were fired for no particular reason. Hats off to the hard-working gals and guys who serve their country in the SSA. World class programs, must be defended.
Ken W.
With the 2.8% COLA for 2026, and the increase in Medicare deduction, I have no net increase in my SS income for 2026. How exactly does that keep up with inflation?
John S.
you could get no COLA increase. just be thankful you received something
Noelani
Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of all of us seniors in America helping to safe guard our benefits and make services more efficient. Very much appreciated
Discusted
Still waiting since May for the S.S check my wife had coming before she passed. Have called S.S a number of times since all they say is they are overworked, short staffed. They say they have until Oct. Well Oct is passed. They are fast to cut someone off but dilly dally when they have to pay. Down to one income. Payment would help with bills and groceries. I see no improvement. Tried calling them the other day. Kept having to switch phones as I waited for hours. Finally they hung up on me. Blow that smoke up someone’s else’s rear .
Renee
GREAT work! Would LOVE to know how many people you’ve been able to kick of the program who were frauds and how much $ that equates to? How many illegals have you been able to kick off the program?
Rand
I asked Grok and this is the answer from AI search:
From recent reports, the SSA’s made about seventy-two billion dollars in improper payments over eight years-that’s mostly overpayments to folks who shouldn’t have gotten ’em, like after death. But specific removals? They’ve cleaned up thousands of old records, like over eighteen million potential dead people flagged, but only a fraction corrected so far. For pure fraud busts, they recovered around thirty-one million dollars last year by stopping payments. No exact headcount on people removed.
As for undocumented receiving benefits, ICE deported about 271k in fiscal year twenty twenty-four-that’s a ten-year high. Overall, DHS says they’ve kicked out over half a million since January.
….about 18million files of potential dead peoples records have been matched as fraud.
On the money side, a recent Treasury pilot with SSA stopped 31 million in dodgy payments over 5 months, and overall improper payouts hit about 72 billion from 2015-2022..mostly overpayments, not all fraud.
😤🤮