Economy

Social Security Staffing Cuts and Service Backlogs

The Trump administration cut roughly 7,500 employees from the Social Security Administration between January 2025 and January 2026, a 13 percent reduction and the largest staffing cut in the agency’s history. More than 3,000 of those positions served people directly at field offices or on the national 800 number.

The last time SSA had this few employees was 1967, when there were 480 beneficiaries per staff member. Today there are 1,480 beneficiaries per staff member.

A November 2025 internal operating plan, reported by the Associated Press, set a target of 50 percent fewer field office visits in fiscal year 2026 than in 2025, or no more than 15 million visits, down from 31.6 million.

The backlogs, by measure:

If you are waiting on a disability determination or a replacement Social Security card, the agency handling it has fewer staff than at any time since 1967.

DOGE Access to Social Security Payment Data

In early 2025, staff from the Department of Government Efficiency arrived at SSA headquarters seeking access to payment records, saying they were looking for fraud. In a January 16, 2026 court filing, Justice Department lawyers for the agency corrected earlier testimony and said DOGE staff had shared sensitive data improperly, NPR reported.

The record so far:

1. A DOGE employee was given access to Treasury Department payment systems covering Social Security disbursements. That access was granted without following federal IT security rules.
2. The employee could view, copy, and print data from three Bureau of Fiscal Service payment systems between January and February 2025.
3. The January 2026 filing said two SSA DOGE employees secretly conferred with a political advocacy group about matching Social Security data with state voter rolls, and one signed a “Voter Data Agreement.” The filing said it remains unclear whether any data reached the group.
4. A federal judge in Maryland blocked DOGE’s access to Social Security data on April 17, 2025. The Supreme Court stayed that order on June 6, 2025, letting the access continue while the case goes on.

The stated reason for the access was payments to people who had died. The agency’s own filing now says some of the staff given that access discussed using the data to look for voter fraud.

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Tariffs and Consumer Prices

The tariffs imposed throughout 2025 raised retail prices of imported goods by about 7 percentage points above the pre-tariff trend, the Tax Foundation found.

The cost is not spread evenly. The Yale Budget Lab estimates the 2025 tariff increases take 2.4% of after-tax income from the poorest tenth of households and 0.8% from the richest tenth.

Price increases by product:

Congress did not vote on these tariffs; the president imposed them under emergency and trade laws. The tariffs guide has a letter asking Congress to set tariff policy itself.

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs. About $166 billion had been collected under it. Refunds go to the importers who paid Customs, and no law requires them to pass the money to customers.

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The $911 Billion Medicaid Cut in the 2025 Law

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the reconciliation bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will reduce federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over the next decade, 14 percent of federal Medicaid spending over that period. More than half of the reductions, $526 billion, target states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The cuts come through several mechanisms:

• Work requirements for Medicaid eligibility, starting January 1, 2027
• Freezes on provider taxes that states use to draw down federal matching funds
• Limits on state-directed payments to hospitals and nursing homes
• Reduced federal match rates for expansion populations

The largest financing changes do not take effect until October 2027. Nearly two-thirds of states told KFF they see at least a 50-50 chance of a Medicaid budget shortfall in fiscal year 2026, before the biggest cuts even begin.

Medicaid covers children, pregnant women, seniors in nursing homes, and adults with disabilities. When federal funding shrinks, each state decides whether to pay more itself or cover fewer people.

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SNAP Participation Fell by 3.5 Million

The same reconciliation bill expanded SNAP work requirements and shifted costs to states. The results have been immediate. SNAP participation fell by more than 3.5 million people, nearly 9 percent, between July 2025 and February 2026, the steepest drop in decades, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found.

The new rules require adults to work 20 hours per week or lose benefits after three months. For the first time, this applies to:

• Parents with children over age 6
• Adults aged 55 to 64

Nearly 11 million people live in households at risk of losing some or all of their food assistance, including more than 4 million children and over half a million adults aged 65 or older or with disabilities.

Starting October 2027, most states will also be required to pay a share of SNAP benefit costs for the first time. CBPP expects more people to lose benefits when that happens.

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Changes to Overtime, Contractor and Consumer Protection Rules

Three changes since late 2024 affect workers and borrowers:

Overtime pay. A federal court vacated the 2024 overtime rule in late 2024, and on May 14, 2025 the Department of Labor removed it from its regulations. The salary threshold stays at $684 per week ($35,568 per year), the level set in Trump’s first term. The 2024 rule would have raised that threshold to $1,128 per week ($58,656 per year), extending overtime eligibility to roughly 4 million additional workers. Those workers are now exempt from overtime protections again. Some employees who had already received raises to meet the higher threshold had those raises taken back after the rule was struck down.

Gig worker classification. In May 2025, the Department of Labor stopped enforcing the Biden-era rule that used a six-factor test to determine whether gig workers qualified as employees. In February 2026, DOL proposed a replacement rule that narrows the analysis to two factors: how much control the company has over the worker, and whether the worker has a real opportunity for profit or loss. A narrower test makes it easier to classify workers as independent contractors, who are not covered by federal minimum wage and overtime law or by unemployment insurance.

Consumer protection. On February 8, 2025, the acting CFPB director shut down the bureau’s operations, halting all rulemaking and enforcement. On March 28, 2025, Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from dismantling the bureau while the case continues. The July 2025 reconciliation law then lowered the bureau’s funding cap from 12% to 6.5% of the Federal Reserve’s 2009 operating expenses, roughly half.

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Timeline of Benefit and Labor Rule Changes, 2025 to 2026

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What You Can Do About Benefits, Wages and Prices

1. Check your Social Security statement. Log in at ssa.gov/myaccount and verify your earnings record and benefits estimate. If something is wrong, file a correction now before backlogs get worse.

2. Know your Medicaid status. If you or someone you know receives Medicaid, check your state’s enrollment status now. Work requirements and eligibility changes are rolling out on different timelines in each state. The KFF Medicaid tracker has state-by-state updates.

3. Check SNAP eligibility. If you have lost SNAP benefits or know someone who has, contact your state SNAP office to verify whether you qualify for an exemption from the new work requirements. The CBPP SNAP tracker has the latest participation data by state.

4. Know your overtime rights. The current federal overtime salary threshold is $35,568 per year. If you are paid a salary below that, federal law generally requires overtime pay for hours over 40 in a week. Your state may have a higher threshold. Check the Department of Labor’s FLSA page or contact your state labor department.

5. Ask your representatives where they stand. Town halls put the question on the record. Ask how they voted on the 2025 Medicaid and SNAP changes and what they will do about Social Security service and tariffs.