Social Security phone wait times are at a record low

Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano told Congress Wednesday that the agency has improved one area of ​​legacy pain points for its contacts — long wait times for its toll-free helpline.

The SSA brought the rate of “response speed,” or the time it takes for an agent to answer an incoming call, “to the lowest level in a decade,” Bisignano said in written testimony to the House Ways and Means Social Security and Work & Welfare subcommittee.

In May, the average response speed was less than five minutes, according to Bisignano’s testimony, an 89% reduction from the all-time high of 42 minutes in fiscal year 2024.

“We are now answering 90% of calls to our 800 number, and have reduced the average wait time to five minutes, a 75% improvement,” Bisignano said Wednesday.

The Social Security Administration will have more than 800 million customer engagements this year as a result of its record-breaking performance, according to Bisignano.

The agency currently serves more than 300 million Americans, Bisignano said. It currently issues Social Security benefits to about 71 million people and provides other services, such as issuing Social Security cards.

Bisignano’s testimony comes more than a year after he was sworn in to lead the Social Security Administration in May 2025. In October, Bisignano was appointed to serve as CEO of the IRS.

President Donald Trump chose Bisignano, the former president and CEO of the global payments provider Fiservto bring a business approach to SSA at its best. His appointment follows the Trump administration’s reforms of the Department of Government Operations, or DOGE, to curb “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government.

Before Bisignano’s leadership, SSA said in February 2025 it plans to reduce 7,000 employees to 50,000 in total. The agency ended up losing more than 8,000 workers between January 2025 and April 2026, according to a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, which cited data from the Office of Personnel Management.

Those staff losses have raised concerns among some lawmakers and fueled concerns that the agency’s resources at both its offices and its 800 number could be compromised.

In December, the Public Safety Administration’s Office of Inspector General released a report on the agency’s 800 number in response to an audit request by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who had expressed concern about its effectiveness.

The SSA OIG report said the agency’s 800-reported number metrics were “accurate,” and that its overall phone service performance improved in fiscal year 2025. The agency handled 68 million callers, either directly through an employee or automatically, representing a 65% increase from the previous fiscal year, according to the report. SSA improved those metrics through new social media and workforce restructuring, the report said.

Other lawmakers pressed Bisignano during the hearing on the wait times.

Voters have experienced long wait times, and the level of service they receive varies depending on when they call, due to the shuffling of the agency’s staff, said Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wisc.

In response to Moore, Bisignano said the Social Security Administration has increased the staff available to handle calls during certain hours and is focusing on “having the right number of workers in the right places.”

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., asked if the data update included callers who chose the call-in option and, therefore, could be counted as experiencing zero-minute wait times. OIG data shows wait times of nearly two hours for those who choose the return option, he said.

“The answer is yes, and that’s the industry standard,” Bisignano said of counting repeat requests as zero-minute waits. He disputed the findings of the OIG report and said the average wait time for a call was less than 30 minutes.

The agency has not stopped sharing data on its service performance, he said: “We have more metrics than ever before on the web.”