The Social Security Administration (SSA) made a number of changes throughout 2025 that have a direct effect on millions of beneficiaries across the country. These changes affect everyone who gets retirement payments, SSI, or SSDI.

The changes, such as shifting monthly amounts and adding new identity verification steps, are a result of both having to adapt to the current economic situation and trying to bring internal processes up to date. In 2025, Social Security services went through some major changes. Let’s go over the most important ones.

What you need to know right now about the changes to Social Security

The COLA for 2025 was set at 2.5%, which is the smallest rise in five years. With this change, the average monthly payout goes up by $49. It goes from $1,927 to $1,976. It goes from $3,014 to $3,089 for couples, which is a rise of $75. The change is meant to make up for inflation, but its effect on different people’s costs is different.

The drop in the COLA is due to inflation rates slowing down after reaching 3.2% in 2024. More than 68 million people will be affected by it, such as retirees, orphans, and disabled people. Even though the change is small, it helps keep some buying power even though prices for basic services like health and housing are going up.

Getting rid of WEP and GPO restrictions

When the Social Security Fairness Act was signed into law in 2025, it got rid of the WEP and GPO provisions that lowered benefits for people who got pensions from unprotected public work. Around 3.2 million people, like teachers, firemen, and police officers, get an average of $360 extra each month.

From March 2025 on, the retroactive raises are given to different types of people: spouses get an extra $700, and widows get up to $1,190. To handle, tough cases might need up to a year. The change evens out differences from the past, but some critics say it doesn’t do anything to make sure the system will be able to pay for itself in the long run.

New rules for verifying your name will make Social Security stricter

Starting in 2025, the SSA will only let people apply for cash payments or change their deposit information after they have been verified in person. The goal of the move was to stop fraud, and it affects 73 million people, mostly older adults who don’t have much access to technology.

Because of the process, lines in offices are longer. “If you don’t have an appointment, you’ll have to wait more than three hours,” said an anonymous government worker. The SSA says that making an account in “my Social Security” will speed up the process, but users say they are having technical problems when they try to register or change their information.

At SSA, offices are closing and staff is being cut

In 2025, six of SSA’s ten regional offices will close, and 7,000 jobs will be cut. The organisation will then have 57,000 workers, the fewest since 1975. The rule is part of a plan to make the government more efficient, but some groups say it could hurt the public’s attention.

Aaron Woods, who takes care of his 82-year-old mother, said that fixing a mistake in his Medicare coverage took more than one visit. “There are fewer and fewer staff and more and more tasks are done online,” he said. The SSA suggests using its web portal, but Census data shows that 20% of recipients do not have stable internet access.

Updates to Social Security’s technology and the risk of payment problems

Moving old systems to new languages makes people worry that payments might not go through. A former deputy commissioner named Jason Fichtner said, “Upgrading critical infrastructure without enough testing could stop services for months.” The SSA hasn’t given specific dates, but they have said that the updates will be a top concern in 2025 and 2026.

Even though it makes things safer, the process could cause deposits to be held up or numbers to be wrong. In 2023, a small change pushed back 12% of payments by 48 hours. The SSA says it will put in place backup plans, but it didn’t say how it would pay for any problems that might arise.