{"id":260980,"date":"2026-06-01T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/getting-disability-benefits-got-harder-after-the-social-security-administrations-staff-was-slashed-and-program-rules-were-changed-by-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T09:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:00:11","slug":"getting-disability-benefits-got-harder-after-the-social-security-administrations-staff-was-slashed-and-program-rules-were-changed-by-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/getting-disability-benefits-got-harder-after-the-social-security-administrations-staff-was-slashed-and-program-rules-were-changed-by-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting disability benefits got harder after the Social Security Administration\u2019s staff was slashed and program rules were changed by Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting disability benefits got harder after the Social Security Administration\u2019s staff was slashed and program rules were changed by Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/getting-disability-benefits-got-harder-after-the-social-security-administrations-staff-was-slashed-and-program-rules-were-changed-by-trump-279434<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-01 08:24:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A rapid series of administrative, staffing and policy changes the Social Security Administration underwent early on in the second Trump administration are making it much harder to get disability benefits that millions of Americans rely on to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

The agency cut more than 7,100 jobs \u2013 more than 13% of its workforce and its largest staffing cut ever. It closed six of its 10 regional offices, moved more services online and expanded the use of automated and artificial intelligence systems on its public phone lines.<\/p>\n

Some rules changed and changed back again. For instance, Social Security officials announced in March 2025 that people would no longer be able to apply for benefits on the phone, only to reverse course a month later.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re social work professors at California State University, Sacramento, Binghamton University in New York and the University of Wisconsin-Madison who study these programs. And we have each independently found that even before 2025, it was hard to get disability benefits.<\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019ve found that the process has become even harder.<\/p>\n

Missing metrics<\/h2>\n

In June 2025, the agency removed key customer service metrics, such as phone wait times and disability claim processing times, from its website. This data had provided the public with critical transparency about the agency\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

Lacking insight into the impacts of the many changes underway, we launched a project to study how they were affecting access to disability benefits. We interviewed benefits representatives \u2013 lawyers, social workers and other kinds of advocates who help applicants and beneficiaries navigate Social Security systems.<\/p>\n

We conducted in-depth interviews with 52 advocates at 32 nonprofits, such as legal aid agencies and disability organizations. These organizations collectively assist over 8,000 people every year.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re referring to these advocates by pseudonyms to maintain their privacy. Many insisted that neither they nor their…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting disability benefits got harder after the Social Security Administration\u2019s staff was slashed and program…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/734544\/original\/file-20260507-57-2dsk6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C379%2C4548%2C2274&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-260980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260982,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260980\/revisions\/260982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}