At a recent internal meeting, a Social Security administrator projected some numbers on a screen to illustrate a remarkable trend: New benefit claims were up by more than 15% in March, compared with the same month a year ago.
Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner, chimed in to ask the presenter if the chart showed what he thought it did: that Americans are rushing to claim Social Security now, because they're worried about the stability of the retirement trust fund in the future.
"Fearmongering has driven people to claim benefits earlier, 'cause they're afraid they're not going to claim benefits at all," he said.
"Yes," the staffer replied. "You're exactly right."
The new Trump administration has thrown Social Security into upheaval, with a cascade of staff cuts, rule changes, website outages and leadership shuffles, a routine that has played out across the federal bureaucracy under the cost-cutting eye of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Instability at Social Security could spell trouble for millions of Americans who receive the benefits, and for millions more who are counting on them in the future.
As a result of that fear, thousands of Americans seem to be claiming Social Security benefits early. Pending Social Security claims totaled 580,887 in March 2025, up from 500,527 in March 2024.
An administrator shared the data at a March 28 operational meeting, which the agency posted on YouTube in a gesture of transparency. The spike in claims was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The rise in claims is unusual, the unidentified administrator told his colleagues, because claims usually tick down in the early months of the year, not up.
Fear about the future of Social Security may be only one of several reasons why claims are rising. In an April 29 email to USA TODAY, Social Security officials listed other "key reasons" people are filing claims now. Among them:
Yet, clearly, fear has gripped many Americans over the stability of Social Security. At the March 28 meeting, administrators talked of fearful beneficiaries flooding field offices with questions about benefits.
Some visitors asked for certified copies of earnings records, even though the information is readily available online.
"Why are they coming? They're nervous," one administrator said.
At one point in the meeting, summing up what he had heard, Commissioner Dudek said, "I think we have a lot of customers that, right now, a lot of Americans that are very uneasy."
President Trump has repeatedly pledged not to harm Social Security, a program so sacred to the American public that most politicians consider it untouchable. But Musk and DOGE have turned the agency on its ear, program advocates say, ostensibly searching for evidence of waste and fraud.
In an April 29 release, the agency said it had identified over $1 billion in cost savings through "new, common-sense approaches" to payroll, contracts and grants, travel and purchase-card policies, among other areas.
The release said the agency has modernized its telephone network, enhanced fraud prevention, updated death records and improved payment accuracy. Officials stressed that no field office has been permanently closed, although leaked agency plans suggested office closures were contemplated.
In recent weeks, news of the turmoil at Social Security mobilized fretful Americans to telephone or visit the agency, seeding further chaos. In the end, rumors of long wait times and swamped field offices became self-fulfilling prophecies.
A Reddit community devoted to Social Security features recent conversation threads with such titles as "2 ½ hours on hold, no answer," and, "Advice for people now mistakenly classified as dead?"
Even some seasoned Social Security observers worry that, amid the tumult of revolving-door agency leadership and DOGE cost-cutting, vital records might be lost.
"The DOGE attack on Social Security was so unprecedented and, frankly, so weird, that it freaked everybody out," said Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. "I think people are nervous that things might disappear."
Kamarck has been advising her own friends to download a copy of their Social Security earnings record, a document that shows how much you have earned in your lifetime.
At the first sign of trouble in reaching the agency or resolving a benefits problem, she said, "make sure to involve your congressman." Members of Congress, she said, are highly sensitive to constituent complaints about Social Security.
If thousands of Americans are claiming Social Security earlier than they had planned, as the rise in claims suggests, then claimants could be missing out on thousands of dollars in potential benefits.
You can claim Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62. But the longer you wait to claim, the larger your monthly check. The monthly sum rises annually until age 70. For most Americans who live past 80, financial experts say, you're better off claiming the benefit later.
"Many Americans are rightly alarmed by the chaos that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have manufactured at the Social Security Administration," said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and expanding Social Security.
"The correct response is not to claim benefits before you're ready," she said, "but to contact your members of Congress and make sure they do their jobs, including conducting oversight so that benefits are not disrupted."