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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Clayton
This website is the best to visit daily for all American citizens who need on assistance or the other… In your boredom, visit here to listen to Music .
Elene G.
The commissioner may possibly be sincere in what he wrote. However, given his boss’s decimation of the Social Security workforce, it is ludicrous to tell us that the agency is going to improve its service.
And re: the ability to manage benefits online– many current very elderly folk are not showing themselves very well able to do that. My 88-year-old friend who I’ve been helping certainly cannot. And here in NM, there are huge swathes of the state without internet connectivity. Phone services are still crucial, and you don’t have enough personnel to handle the load.
Pete S.
This page contains a notice to act by May 5. May 5? Are you kidding us? Who is keeping this information up to date?
“SSI Recipients: Act by May 5 to Get $500 Economic Impact Payment Now for Your Child”
B. H.
I have asked before that you not politicize my social security. I don’t need to see anything with President Trump’s name referenced nor with commissioner’s name mentioned as all the government is trying to do us find a way to steal or reduce the benefits that I worked hard for all my life. Please restrict your communications to us to only necessary information and enough if patting yourselves on the back for doing nothing except invading our accounts.
Ron A.
How does this help those who don’t have computer skills, access or internet service?
Jake
A reasonable way to view these improvements are:
• Prior administrations: credit for starting modernization, funding and designing core IT changes, and moving SSA away from purely paper‑and‑phone operations.
• Current administration: credit for aggressively executing, tightening management, making visible trade‑offs (reassignments, digital‑first push), and delivering the sharp improvements in wait times, uptime, and backlog numbers you see in the recent letter.
So it is not a story of “they did nothing and this team did everything,” but rather “they laid pipes; this team finally pushed water through them in a way the public can feel.
Lloyd H.
Dear SS Matters,
Thank you for fighting for us retired American workers who have participated in the system over a considerable portion of our lives. We were promised that if we participated; the system would be here for us as our work periods ended. For me and my wife SS is essentially all that we have now. Please don’t let it be taken from us.
Lloyd H.
Dear SS Matters,
Thank you for fighting for us retired American workers who have participated in the system over a considerable portion of our lives. We were promised that if we participated the system would be here for us as our work periods ended. For me and my wife SS is essentially all that we have now. Please don’t let it be taken from us.
Sue P.
Liars. I waited on hold for 3 hours before being connected with a live rep. This happened twice during 2025.
Rand
Thank you for the improvements!
I still hope to see a major plus happen, whic is an accurate projected amount slide for each month, to help make such a big decision.. when to take our ssa after ssa all the way to our 70th month of work. The slide that only shows a figure in the month of January is not helpful, imo. Or perhaps amounts updated quarterly once every FRA is reaches.
Please update this slide of only an annual projection. So appreciate if this can happen. Again, thank you for all improvements & making wait times a quicker process.