Staffing Losses at SSA Severely Impact Disability Service

According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

The large, rapid, and haphazard loss of staff last year will likely hamper SSA’s performance for years to come. The Administration chased away an unprecedented level of expertise and experience from the agency.

Staff cuts appear to be contributing to the rapid growth in the backlog of disability appeals. The number of disability hearings awaiting resolution has jumped by 24 percent just in the past year.

Between January 2025 and January 2026, SSA lost 13 percent of its administrative law judges (ALJs). The largest one-year drop on record, it led to the fewest ALJs employed by SSA in at least 20 years. SSA also lost hundreds of attorneys and paralegals in 2025, many of whom help ALJs prepare for hearings and write decisions.

The number of disability hearings awaiting resolution rose by more than 73,000 from January 2025 to February 2026, to nearly 344,000. After years of progress in reducing record backlogs (including during the first Trump Administration), 2025 was the first fiscal year since 2016 in which the number of people awaiting decisions on their appeals increased. The loss of judges needed to decide these appeals will make it even more difficult for SSA to shrink the growing backlog.