In Trump's first year, customer service at Social Security markedly improved, watchdog finds

During President Donald Trump's first year back in office, auditors said customer service at the Social Security Administration markedly improved as tens of millions more Americans were served in 2025 and the wait times for calls being answered dropped four-fold, the agency watchdog reported in a surprisingly positive year-end report.

The findings were in response to a query from Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and the auditors credited the improvements to a new telephone customer service system, changes in staffing and better training.

"In FY 2025, SSA served—either by an SSA employee or automation—68 million callers, a 65-percent increase from FY 2024," the SSA Office of Inspector General reported. "The Agency improved performance because it used a new telecommunications platform and staff realignments.

"The new platform increased call volume capacity and expanded self-service and automated options. SSA also used the new platform’s capabilities to identify in real-time ways to better serve callers, target training, and improve frequently asked questions," it added.

Response time 42 minutes under Biden, seven minutes under Trump

Most significantly, wait times for calls being answered from Social Security customers dropped from a peak of 30 minutes when Trump took over in January to seven minutes at the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, the report found. That was an improvement from Biden's last year in office, when call wait times reached as high as 42 minutes, it noted.

You can read the full report here.

Social Security Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano credited concerted changes in staffing and the new phone system for the improvements and vowed more are coming in 2026.

"The results of the audit come as no surprise to anyone following the historic progress we are making at the agency under President Trump’s leadership,” Bisignano said. “We are serving more Americans at significantly faster speeds than ever before. While partisan politicians are attempting to undermine trust of SSA, we are determined to continue improving customer service online, on the phone, and in person at field offices."

In addition to the improved phone experience, Bisignano said SSA also made progress on other customer service metrics, including:

• The average wait time for visitors at field offices decreased by nearly 30 percent in 2025;
• The backlog of pending initial disability claims  decreased by 33% from the all-time high of 1.26 million pending claims in June 2024.
• Americans now have 24/7 access to their personal "my Social Security" account. Previously, the website was down 29 hours a week.

Room for improvement

The inspector general's report, however, identified room for continued improvement: "About 25 million calls ended without the callers receiving service either because the callers disconnected the calls, the callers did not answer SSA’s callback, SSA could not call back the callers, or all telephone lines were busy," it noted.

The agency wrote to its watchdog that more improvements are on the way to address the call abandonment problem.