Social Security Administration Says It Plans to Lay Off 7,000 Workers

The Social Security Administration (SSA) said on Friday that it is planning to lay off about 20 percent of its workforce, or 7,000 employees, in a bid to support the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts. The agency said it intends to reduce its workforce from the current level of roughly 57,000 to about 50,000, with a significant focus on “functions and employees who do not directly provide mission critical services.” The SSA also plans to close down several of its regional offices, reducing the number of offices from 10 to four, and slash the number of deputy commissioner-level organizations to seven. Employees can choose to leave the agency through various resignation and retirement programs, including the Voluntary Early Retirement (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP)....