The latest Census Bureau statistics show that approximately 40,000 Shasta County residents are aged 65 and over. That means many of them are receiving Social Security Retirement or Disability benefits, as well as Medicare.
Why is that number important? Because the Social Security Administration (SSA) is still trying to do more with fewer employees, and despite some recent assurances from Commissioner Frank Bigisnano, the situation is only getting worse at field offices and teleservice centers around the country.
Sylvia Norman is President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3172, a Union which represents Social Security employees across a large portion of Northern California. She recently asked those workers what is happening in their offices. The responses were very candid and showed once again that the Trump Administration is doing everything it can make life much harder for this country’s senior population.
“I’ve been with the agency for over 29 years.” wrote one employee, “and this is so unreal. Our clientele is now waiting sometimes over five hours just to get checked in or to be seen…The expectations are unreal and inhumane. I can only speak for myself, but we are overwhelmed, and management does not seem to care.”
Another employee expressed the same degree of frustration:
“Appointment holders wait much longer and sometimes must reschedule due to us not having people. This causes anger and frustration for us employees as we apologize to angry customers for being late to all of our appointments.”
SSA Commissioner Bisignano has testified to Congress that agency employees are now answering 90 per cent of the calls that are made to their national 800-number and the average wait time is just five minutes.
He did not mention how those impressive numbers are being reached, but AFGE President Sylvia Norman has a simple explanation:
“Field office management in Redding, Chico, Yreka, and so many other cities are telling their employees – answer the phone and don’t stop until we tell you. The results is that hundreds and hundreds of claims are just sitting on those employees’ desks waiting to be processed, and when they’re not, they are denied. It’s just that simple.”
The Trump Administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in February, 2025 that it wanted to reduce SSA staffing by 7,000. Eventually, more than 8,000 employees were fired or retired between January, 2025 and this past April.
One Redding resident has told this reporter that he recently went to the office on Park Marina Drive because he wanted to either schedule a phone or in-person Retirement interview with an employee in that office. The man was stopped by a security guard who “strongly encouraged” him to go home and file an online application. The now-retired educator said he didn’t want to do that because he’d been told those types of applications could be sent anywhere in the United States and he’d have no way of knowing when (or if) it would be processed.
Eventually, the man said, the guard let him into the building but “warned” he probably wouldn’t be seen for several hours.
Nationwide, according to SSA’s own statistics, between 2024 and 2026 five offices lost at least 75 per cent of their staff, 26 offices experienced at least a 50 per cent decline, and another 177 lost at least 25 per cent of their workers. The declines didn’t stop there. An additional 420 offices saw a 15 per cent loss in staffing and 630 lost at least ten per cent of their employees.
“This is certainly not good public service,” believes Sylvia Norman. “It shows that Trump and his people have an ultimate goal: either destroy Social Security completely and let millions of Americans starve or privatize the agency. If that happens – and I’ll fight the idea with everything I have – corporations would then have access to the agency’s combined trust funds of $2.7 TRILLION dollars.
“I can’t believe that’s what the public really wants.”
John Oertle is a former Social Security employee.
