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How Social Security Has Changed in 2025

A new year and new administration will always bring about change in government programs. 2025 is no different. In this article we want to briefly go over some of the changes we have seen in 2025 in regard to Social Security.

The government has claimed it has made the administration more efficient already. They have apparently cut $1B in spending associated with the management of the Social Security Administration. “I am proud of the extraordinary work by our dedicated employees at SSA to help deliver on President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security,” said Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek.

They have also reduced the employee count from 57,000 to 50,000. The admin stated that are using “common-sense approaches in areas such as payroll, information technology, contracts and grants printing, travel, and purchase card policies.”

Overpayment Claw backs

As mentioned in a previous article, the SSA increased its claw back rate of overpayments to 100%. This may impact people who spent the overpayment and still live payment-to-payment most. Full size payments will resume once 100% of the overpayment is repaid.

The SSA has a history of accidentally over-paying some folks. It’s what happens in a system this large with so many outgoing payments. Overpayments happen as much as 4% per year and just two years ago, that rate was 7%.

Fraud Prevention

It is estimated that the SSA issued up to $72B in improper payments in 2022 alone. That is a staggering number. In an effort to reduce fraud and make the system more efficient, the SSA has already implemented some technological changes to the backend of the system.

The agency previously required all exchanges with them to be done by ID-proofing online. Now, with better fraud detection capability, Social Security recipients can make a claim with a simple phone call.

Conclusion

The SSA ran a $110B deficit last year. Major changes are needed to balance the books for this program. Though some steps have been made in the right direction, there is still ways to go before the system is functioning as it is supposed to.

Their ultimate goal is to have as little waste and fraud as possible while making it easier for Social Security customers to access their information and transact with the Administration.