Customer service improved significantly at the Social Security Administration during 2025, according to a recent audit of the agency’s telephone services by the SSA Office of the Inspector General.
The report confirmed that the SSA recently has seen “profound customer service improvements” thanks to technology enhancements and key staffing decisions, according to the SSA.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) requested an audit of the agency’s wait times for telephone services after she became concerned about the administration’s phone practices. Warren hoped to determine the accuracy of the SSA’s phone service metrics and whether phone service improved.
Specifically, she wanted to know:
- Current wait times for services and other key service metrics
- How the SSA collected telephone data and calculated its service metrics
- Whether the SSA provided the public with accurate and complete telephone information on wait times and other key service metrics
What has improved?
The report found that there has been a large decrease in phone wait times. The SSA improved its telephone service during fiscal year 2025, with average wait times falling from 30 minutes in January 2025 to just seven minutes in September 2025.
This improvement occurred despite the fact that the SSA served 65% more callers in fiscal year 2025 (Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025) than in the previous year. The SSA’s use of technology, self-service options and process engineering were major factors in the improvement, according to the OIG.
The number of abandoned calls also fell sharply. These are calls where customers did not receive service either because callers did not remain on the line to complete their calls or because the phone platform could not connect callers to an SSA representative.
About 25 million calls ended as abandoned in fiscal year 2025. Although that might sound like a lot, the number of abandoned calls fell during the year. After peaking at 3.4 million calls in January 2025, abandoned calls plummeted to 911,000 in September 2025.
What is behind the improvements?
The SSA introduced a new telecommunications platform that has helped the administration to boost call volume capacity and expand self-service and automated options.
The old platform could handle around 12,000 calls before callers encountered busy conditions. By contrast, some queues on the new platform allow up to 40,000 calls.
Artificial intelligence is also being used to improve self-service and automated options. In particular, a new question-and-answer chatbot provides answers to 74 frequently asked questions. Automation addressed 2.9 million calls per month in fiscal year 2025, much higher than the 300,000 calls a month in fiscal year 2024.
Finally, key staffing changes have resulted in better customer service, according to the SSA.
In July, the SSA started to assign field office employees to answer national 800-number calls. This improved the average speed of answer time from 13.3 minutes in June to 7.5 minutes in July.
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