The warning comes as the agency shifts its focus to nearly 900,000 complicated cases.
Workers at the Social Security Administration (SSA) are raising concerns that some people might see delays in their payments over the next few weeks. The warning comes as the agency shifts its focus to nearly 900,000 complicated cases.
SSA workers say there may still be delays for routine changes, like updating direct deposit info or sorting out Medicaid billing.(REUTERS)
SSA workers say there may still be delays for routine changes, like updating direct deposit info or sorting out Medicaid billing.(REUTERS)
SSA employees told USA Today that this change in focus could mean late or missing checks for thousands of Americans. These delays could affect people making routine updates to their accounts, like changing a bank or home address.
This is important because nearly 70 million Americans depend on Social Security each month for essentials like rent, groceries, and healthcare.
Law give benefits to people…
The agency is currently carrying out changes tied to the Social Security Fairness Act, which was passed under former President Donald Trump’s administration. The law gives benefits to people who paid into the system but were previously not eligible—such as teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public workers.
Drew Powers, founder of Illinois-based Powers Financial Group said, "More than 2 million of these cases were straightforward enough to be automated, but the remaining 900,000 claims are more complicated and must be approved by hand," as quoted by Newsweek report.
Although the White House says these updates should not affect current Social Security payments, SSA workers say there may still be delays for routine changes, like updating direct deposit info or sorting out Medicaid billing.
Employees have been told to prioritize the remaining cases under the Fairness Act. "Using automation, SSA has already expedited over $15.1 billion in long-delayed retroactive payments to more than 2.3 million individuals affected," White House spokesperson Liz Huston said previously.
SSA workers also say they’ve been given a deadline of July 1 to complete the updates, which is creating a backlog and slowing down responses to other types of requests.
