Frank Bisignano just took the top job at the Social Security Administration, and nearly 73 million people might see changes in how they get their money.
Frank, a former finance exec, was confirmed as commissioner this week under Donald Trump’s new term in the White House. The agency’s already gone through a mountain of reforms in the first 100 days of Trump’s return — many driven by the Department of Government Efficiency. Now, with Frank in charge, those changes are going even faster.
According to CNBC, adjustments are already affecting pensions, overpayment rules, phone wait times, and direct deposit setups. From the way checks are calculated to how the agency handles mistakes, Trump’s government is pressing harder on enforcement and automation.
Trump’s law gives retirees more cash
A new law that kicked in this January is giving almost 3 million people a raise in their Social Security checks. The Social Security Fairness Act targets workers who used to get hit by the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — two rules that cut down benefits for folks with jobs that didn’t pay into Social Security.
That includes teachers, cops, firefighters, federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System, and workers under foreign pension plans.
Under the new law, they’ll now get full Social Security benefits. Monthly increases started going out in February and could be small for some, but others will see over $1,000 more every month. And it’s not just future checks getting bumped.
The agency is also sending retroactive payments all the way back to January 2024. In just over three months, Social Security has already paid $14.8 billion in back pay to more than 2.2 million people.
The catch? Not everyone’s getting their check right away. Some cases need manual processing, and the agency says it could take over a year to get those paid.
Overpayment rules snap back to 50%
The way Social Security handles overpayments has also changed again. If the government pays someone too much by mistake — which can go unnoticed for months or even years — it eventually sends a letter demanding the money back. Under Joe Biden, the default repayment rate was lowered to 10% of a person’s monthly benefit, or $10, whichever was higher. That was meant to ease the burden.
Under Trump, the agency announced in March that it planned to bring the rate back up to 100%, meaning someone could lose their entire check until the debt was cleared. The move was supposed to recover about $7 billion over the next ten years.
But after complaints, the agency adjusted the plan. Starting April 25, the default withholding rate for new overpayment letters is now 50% for retirement, survivor, and disability benefits. For SSI, the rate stays at 10%.
That’s still too much for some. Richard Fiesta, head of the Alliance for Retired Americans, told CNBC, “Losing 50% [of benefits] for a lot of people could put them into immediate economic hardship.”
And that’s not the only reason a check can shrink. On May 5, the federal government restarted collection efforts for defaulted student loans.
That means the Education Department can now use the Treasury Department Offset Program to grab Social Security benefits, tax refunds, and even paychecks to cover unpaid loans.
Some people could see those deductions as early as June. The agency can also withhold checks for unpaid child support, alimony, restitution, and tax debt, depending on who you owe.
Both parties in Congress are complaining. Republicans in the House Ways and Means Committee told Frank these problems aren’t new. But Democrats worry that if nothing gets fixed, more chaos is coming.
The agency says it’s working on a new telecom system that should make phone calls easier. The full upgrade is expected to be finished by the end of this summer. Early results show slightly better answer rates, but the problems aren’t gone.
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