Social Security Administration Reports Best Performance in Agency History: 800 Number Wait Falls to 5.6 Minutes, Online Transactions Top 571 Million
The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) announced on October 23 in Baltimore that it achieved the best overall performance in the agency's history in fiscal year 2026. Under its digital-first strategy, SSA said it expanded its use of technology and process management to serve customers online, by phone, and in field offices, resulting in double-digit improvements in every service metric.
"Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, we are protecting and strengthening Social Security for generations to come," said Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano. "SSA's digital-first strategy is driving transformational improvements and historic results across the agency as we execute on our mission to be a premier service organization. We are delivering better, faster, higher-quality service across all channels while safeguarding the long-term stability of our programs."
On phone service, the average speed of answer on the National 800 Number fell to 5.6 minutes in fiscal year 2026, an almost 80 percent improvement from 28 minutes in fiscal year 2024. SSA said it maintained a zero percent busy rate over the last six months and posted its highest answer rate in more than a decade, with intelligent call routing and expanded interactive voice recognition technology handling 40 percent of calls.
In field offices, average wait times fell by over 30 percent compared with fiscal year 2024 while serving nearly 30 million visitors nationwide. SSA said every field office caller now has access to an automated self-service option, replacing the absence of such technology in fiscal year 2024.
Online, SSA said it eliminated 29 hours of weekly website downtime, enabling uninterrupted access to personal my Social Security accounts and resulting in over ten million additional logins over the past year. The agency completed over 571 million online transactions in fiscal year 2026, a 30 percent increase from fiscal year 2024, and surpassed 105 million registered my Social Security account holders, a 20 percent increase from fiscal year 2024.
On disability claims, SSA shortened the overall average processing time for initial disability claims by 40 days, or 17 percent, compared with fiscal year 2024. The initial disability claims backlog fell 23 percent, from nearly 1.2 million at the end of fiscal year 2024 to 911,000 at the end of fiscal year 2026, and the annual average wait time for a hearing decreased by 72 days since fiscal year 2024.
On program integrity, SSA said it returned $645 million in delinquent programmatic debt to the Trust Funds since resuming the Treasury Offset Program in March 2025. It also completed the most comprehensive Social Security number database clean-up in agency history, correcting nearly 15 percent of all active SSNs, adding 17 million previously missing dates of death, and updating approximately 25 million records that lacked citizenship information. SSA said the improvements saved the public 200 million hours in fiscal year 2025, generated $16 billion in savings since fiscal year 2024, and reduced open audit recommendations to a 40-year low.
Source: GSM, United States
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：社会保障局总部园区（Woodlawn, Maryland）国家计算机中心翻新后的办公区。照片：美国总务管理局 GSA，公共领域，经 gsa.gov 图库。 / Renovated office space at the Social Security Administration's National Computer Center on its headquarters campus in Woodlawn, Maryland. Photo: U.S. General Services Administration, public domain, via gsa.gov.
