Yahoo Finance

The Social Security Administration has seen a number of changes under the first 100 days of President Trump's second term, including a new commissioner for the agency. And here to break down the changes, we've got Yahoo Finance senior columnist Carrie Hannon. Carrie, what do we know?

Well, great to be here, Brad. You know, there's just been so much change at Social Security. There've been thousands of jobs eliminated. There's lots of field offices that are set to be closed. So people have been pretty concerned about all the flux surrounding Social Security. And so there's about six things I think we could run through that we're seeing as really kind of things to pay attention to that the new commissioner is going to have to be responsible for. And um, the first one is uh, something that uh, I believe you and I have talked about before, but the Social Security Fairness Act, uh, is something that is a good thing that was uh, passed by bipartisan support, Biden signed it into law. And this is something with Social Security that individuals who worked, say as a teacher or as a firefighter or any sort of job like that that had did not have Social Security attached to it. But at another time in their career, they did have a job that they paid into Social Security. Because of things like the Windfall Elimination Provision, and there was another one called the Government Pension Offset, that made it uh, these folks weren't getting the Social Security they paid into. This changed that. So this year they've started to see uh, either a partial or all of that repaid to them, which is a good thing. Um, but we've had some other things that are a bit concerning, um, with this administration. People who were paid too much into their Social Security. Now, this can happen. The government sends you a check that is more than your check should have been. And these mistakes happen. They're errors. It's no fraud involved here. It's just happens. And it takes a while for it to be recognized. And under the Biden administration, when this was discovered, people would have to repay that money, uh, 10% or $10 out of each of their checks. Uh, under the Trump administration, they bumped that up that you needed to pay 100% of it, uh, out of every check until you made up the amount that was overpaid. Then they reversed that, or I should say reduced that from 100%. Now, uh, starting April 25th, I believe it's 50, I believe it is 50% now. So that has come down a bit, Brad. But but that still can be pretty onerous on a senior who's depending on that check to meet their monthly cost of living to all of a sudden have it reduced.

So with that in mind, the next two on our list are changes under Trump to fault withholding rates and garnish benefits from student loan debtors. What do we know on that front?

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, I think, well, first of all, let's talk a little bit about the student loan thing. I was just on a call with the Federal Reserve, the New York Fed this morning, that shows that student loan defaults have uh, really soared in the first quarter of this year as they've started to be reported again. And under this new uh, provision here, of Social Security, now, if you are getting Social Security checks and you are in default with your student loan, they can take that student loan uh, debt and uh, start to take that away from your Social Security check, just like they would if, say, you had, um, you know, other sort of childcare support, that sort of thing. So that's going to be back in action again, and that can impact someone's Social Security check if they're defaulted on their student loans. So that is something that I think we need to be concerned about. Um, and uh, so moving forward. And then also, um, I think there was another thing we talked about the uh, digital ID code, right? Um, sort of. Oh no, this is the important thing. I'm sorry to digress. Um, in person and, um, you know, having to show up in person at field offices to identify yourself. This became a big deal earlier this year about the trying to stop people being able to call into the 800 number in order to sign up for Social Security and so forth. Um, and they said, "Hey, hey, no, you we're not doing call-ins. You've got to only do it online or show up in person." This was really hard for people, seniors who didn't have access to online, rural broadband systems, and they lived far from field offices. In order to go in, they backed that, they backed away from that. So now you still can do the 800 numbers, but what is happening is there's still field offices are scheduled to be closed. The wait times have continued to increase. The number of calls to the 800 number at Social Security have jumped 25% uh, in April over April a year ago. More people are are anxious to to find out, and more people are turning 65 and retiring and applying for benefits. So we're seeing a surge in interest. But again, Brad, I have to note Social Security. There was always uh, problems with customer service in terms of wait times and so forth. And I have a friend I I spoke to over the weekend. It took him a year to get his Social Security first check last in 2024. So this isn't new, but it's uh, scheduled to get a bit worse. And the final thing is digital ID codes are on the way in June so that you'll be able to identify in my Social Security account, and you won't need a paper Social Security ID.

Carrie, thanks so much for breaking this all down. A lot to keep tabs on here and some of those changes.

Thank you.