Getting disability benefits got harder after the Social Security Administration’s staff was slashed and program rules were changed by Trump

Researchers learned from dozens of interviews that the usual ways of resolving complex cases, escalating issues and holding the authorities accountable no longer work.

By: Katie Savin, California State University, Sacramento; Callie Freitag, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Matthew Borus, Binghamton University, State University of New York, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: June 1, 2026

Words: 1,879

Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks ago

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By Katie Savin, California State University, Sacramento; Callie Freitag, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Matthew Borus, Binghamton University, State University of New York

A rapid series of administrative, staffing and policy changes the Social Security Administration underwent early on in the second Trump administration are making it much harder to get disability benefits that millions of Americans rely on to make ends meet.

The agency cut more than 7,100 jobs – more than 13% of …

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