Press Release
For Immediate Release
press.office@ssa.gov
Social Security Commissioner Shares End of Fiscal Year Update with Congress
Baltimore, MD — Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano sent an end of year letter to Congress to provide an update on the tremendous progress being made at SSA.
The letter comes at the end of Fiscal Year 2025 and gave Members of Congress an update on SSA’s ongoing customer service improvements, operational enhancements, online accessibility advancements, backlog reductions, and overall program integrity.
“SSA’s mission remains vital as ever. With continued support from Congress, we will build upon recent progress, modernize the way we serve the public, and ensure that our programs and services remain a source of stability for generations to come,” wrote Commissioner Bisignano in the letter. “I am grateful for the opportunity President Trump has given me to lead the hardworking men and women of SSA.”
Read the Fiscal Year in Review Letter
Letter Excerpts:
“In July, we announced that we completed sending over 3.1 million payments, totaling over $17 billion, to beneficiaries eligible under the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA), 5 months ahead of schedule.”
“Following my confirmation in early May, I learned that SSA’s online portal, my Social Security, had scheduled downtime of 29 hours a week, leaving Americans without instant access to their benefit information. As a result of the quick actions taken by my leadership team this past summer, Americans now have 24/7 access to their Social Security information online...The growth in new account holders, combined with our increased engagement on the value of doing business online, enabled a nearly 20% increase in online transactions in Fiscal Year 2025 compared to the prior year.”
“Through the use of technology and proper allocation of resources, we have been able to reduce the year-over-year average speed of answer from 28 minutes in Fiscal Year 2024 to 15 minutes in Fiscal Year 2025, while serving 65% more callers than the previous year. In addition, nearly 90% of calls are now resolved via self-service or convenient callbacks, methods Americans frequently use when contacting organizations in both the public and private sector.”
“In-office wait times are down almost 27% to 22 minutes from 30 minutes at the end of last year. Visitors who had a scheduled appointment only waited around 6 minutes on average to receive assistance. This has been made possible with changes to the field office phone systems now allowing for nearly 30% of calls to be handled instantaneously through technology, which gives our teams more time to focus on customers needing help in-person.”
“The disability claims backlog was at an all-time high in June of 2024 with over 1.26 million pending claims. I am proud to share that we have reduced the backlog this year by over 25% to 865,000, a level that hasn’t been seen since 2022. We also decreased the initial claim average processing time by 13% to 209 days, down from 240 days in January 2025, and maintained historic lows of disability hearings pending, with average wait times reduced by nearly 60 days since the last fiscal year.”
More information about how SSA is better serving Americans at their preferred service channel is available at www.ssa.gov/ssa-performance.
For more information about Social Security’s services, visit www.ssa.gov.
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