Social Security workers in KC fear looming Trump job cuts: Anxiety is ‘off the charts’
When Rep. Mark Alford held a raucous town hall on the edge of the Kansas City metro last week, a woman who said she works for the Social Security Administration pressed the Missouri Republican over billionaire Elon Musk’s newfound power as he slashes his way through the federal workforce.
“I wake up every single day just wondering if I have a job tomorrow,” the worker said afterward.
Thousands of Social Security Administration workers in the agency’s Kansas City region suddenly face uncertainty over their job security. The region encompasses hundreds of workers in Kansas City and hundreds more in dozens of field offices across Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.
The Social Security Administration, or SSA, rolled out a sweeping plan last week to cut thousands of jobs nationwide and consolidate the agency’s 10 regions into four. The current Kansas City region would be absorbed into a new Mid-West/West Region.
The overhaul plan shocked SSA workers in the Kansas City area, prompting many to weigh their future at the agency.
The Star spoke with five SSA workers who raised concerns that the swift reductions risk endangering the timely delivery of Social Security benefits or at the very least questioned whether cuts will harm customer service in a four-state region with millions of monthly benefit recipients. All but one spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear professional repercussions.
At stake is not just their own jobs but the work they perform, some of the employees said. They expressed pride in the agency’s record of uninterrupted benefits, which include payments to seniors, individuals with disabilities and their families. The agency also helps individuals enroll in Medicare.
“Social Security employees themselves are very fearful of a real downturn in our ability to provide these services,” said Garth Stocking, the secretary of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1336, which represents workers in SSA’s Kansas City region. He is also an SSA employee.
Employees described a bleak mood among the agency’s workforce in Kansas City. Long-time workers, some with over 30 years of experience, are contemplating early retirement. More recent hires are asking whether they should begin updating resumes and searching for jobs.
The Social Security Administration’s future presence in Kansas City is also in doubt. Little information has been provided about where the new consolidated region will be headquartered, employees say. Kansas City currently houses a regional office with 163 employees and a program service center with nearly 1,000 employees.
The General Services Administration has placed the Richard Bolling Federal Building downtown on a list of non-core federal properties designated for possible sale. SSA is one of the building’s primary tenants. An SSA building in Kansas City, Kansas, is also on the list.
“The mood is so frustrated, so angry, so disgusted, feeling entirely disrespected … This reorganization makes no sense on its face,” Stocking said. “We recognize that there sure could be some efficiencies, some things that could be found. But it should be done in a thoughtful way.”
An agency-wide email on Feb. 27 informed employees that those who don’t want to undergo the restructuring may resign or retire. Workers were also offered the option of signing up for Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments, or VSIP, by March 14. For eligible employees, the VSIP offers payments of up to $25,000 to depart.
“The people who can retire are frantically trying to get their retirement estimates … and seeing if going out on that VSIP plan is a good option for them,” one employee said. “The people who have to stay because they can’t retire, their anxiety level is off the charts. They’re panicking.”
The Social Security Administration’s press office for the Kansas City region didn’t respond to questions.
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, said the current moment is the first time since he was first elected to Congress in 2004 that the federal administration has ignored him as it pursues major changes affecting his district.
Cleaver said he hasn’t been consulted as agencies with a presence in Kansas City move forward with firings and restructurings. Basic information, such as how many probationary employees have been fired, is hard to come by.
The congressman voiced particular concern that cuts to the Social Security Administration could lead to mistakes in getting benefits to Missouri residents. Any job cuts must be done with “great care,” he said, adding that a typical administration would be meeting with him and others to talk about their plans.
“First of all, if these were ordinary times, as I said earlier, we would be sitting down at the table discussing the proposed changes,” Cleaver said. “I’ve been meeting with federal employees out of our congressional district now going on three weeks. And the stories we’re hearing are gory and really, really unfair.”
“These are real human beings and they’re being pushed around like they’re checkers and inanimate objects. And I think that’s wrong.”
The Social Security Administration represents just one element of a sprawling federal workforce based in Kansas City that faces cuts. Some 30,000 people work for the federal government across the metro.
About 100 workers at the Internal Revenue Service’s Kansas City campus were fired last month as part of a purge of probationary employees. The Associated Press and other news outlets are reporting the IRS is developing plans to cut nearly half its workforce nationally. More than 4,000 people work for the IRS in Kansas City.
Missouri House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, said widespread firings and layoffs devastate communities and would risk a local recession.
“Kansas City has a huge federal workforce and the idea that we are going to see massive cuts, I mean, again, Kansas City, as strong as our economy is, we don’t have thousands of open jobs waiting for these folks and I think that that’s the biggest concern,” Aune said.
‘Bloated workforce’ cited
The Social Security Administration’s workforce reduction and reorganization announcement came as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative continues to make its way through the federal bureaucracy, with many agencies firing recently hired employees and canceling contracts with little review.
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, took over the role last month after the previous acting commissioner reportedly resigned following clashes over how much access DOGE should have to recipient information. Musk has been critical of Social Security, calling the New Deal program “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” during an appearance on podcaster Joe Rogan’s show last week.
Whether SSA’s restructuring is a direct result of DOGE, the plan matches the overall tone set by President Donald Trump’s administration: make changes fast and aggressively.
“We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on,” Trump said in his address to Congress on Tuesday night.
Citing out-of-context statistics, Trump claimed that government databases showed tens of millions of Social Security recipients older than 100 and said “money is being paid to many of them.” The Associated Press has debunked similar claims from Trump and Musk, finding a misinterpretation of data in Social Security’s software systems.
The Social Security Administration in a news release on Friday said it planned to reduce the size of its “bloated workforce and organizational structure,” with a significant focus on functions and employees not directly providing “mission critical services.” The agency said it’s aiming for a workforce of 50,000 nationwide, down from 57,000.
Whether SSA has a target workforce goal for the Kansas City region is unclear. Employees who spoke to The Star weren’t aware of one and SSA didn’t answer a question about staffing goals for the region.
The agency said in its news release that it anticipated achieving much of the staffing reductions from retirements and resignations. Additional cuts will come from “reduction-in-force actions” — the federal government’s term for layoffs. SSA’s RIF plan is due March 13, but no date has been set for when it might be carried out.
The reductions and reorganization prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, the agency said.
“SSA is committed to ensure this plan has a positive effect on the delivery of Social Security services,” the unsigned release said.
Employees who spoke to The Star voiced fears the opposite will happen. The same workload will fall on fewer employees, resulting in more errors, one employee said. That in turn will create even more work as the agency spends time correcting mistakes.
One employee weighing whether to “jump ship” and apply for VSIP was also wrestling with how their departure would affect co-workers.
KC future unclear
In addition to workforce reductions, employees are also grasping for information about whether the consolidation of the Social Security Administration’s regions could eventually require them to move elsewhere.
The Richard Bolling Federal Building, located on East 12th Street southeast of City Hall, houses extensive Social Security Administration operations. A total of 16 agencies occupy the building’s 1 million square feet, according to the General Services Administration.
On Tuesday the building appeared on GSA’s list of “non-core” federal properties for disposal, a designation that the agency is open to selling the building. In response to questions about the building, the GSA said in a statement that the list of “non-core assets” is subject to change.
The entire list of properties was removed from the GSA website on Wednesday.
The American Federation of Government Employees warned that cuts will increase wait times and delay benefits. Seniors, people with disabilities and others who rely on Social Security will experience more frustration, AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a statement.
“The American people deserve better than broken promises and a hostile takeover of Social Security by unaccountable billionaires,” Kelley said. “We need to protect Social Security from this scheme — not just for today’s seniors, but for future generations.”
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed reporting
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 1:54 PM.
