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Elon Musk may have left Washington, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may be dead, but the changes the agency helped unleash on Social Security are very much alive.
DOGE officially reached its planned expiration date (1) on July 4, 2026, after shutting down months earlier. The initiative launched sweeping efforts to shrink the federal workforce and overhaul government agencies, with more than 260,000 federal employees leaving government service in 2025 amid layoffs, early retirements, deferred resignations and a hiring freeze.
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Social Security offers one of the clearest examples of what DOGE left behind.
Nearly 8,000 employees have left (2) the agency since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to Office of Personnel Management data cited by the Federal News Network. The Social Security Administration (SSA) entered 2026 with roughly 50,000 employees, leaving the agency with its smallest workforce in decades, even as it serves around 75 million beneficiaries. Musk himself has since called DOGE only "somewhat successful" and said he wouldn't undertake the effort again.
Yet, Social Security is still moving ahead with an increasingly technology-driven future. Its newly released strategic plan (3) for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 describes its goals as "transformative," with a focus on faster, more reliable service, technology and productivity. That approach builds on changes DOGE pushed at the agency under Musk (4), including workforce reductions, greater reliance on online services and an explicit effort to use technology and automation to improve efficiency.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents SSA workers, says the agency has long been understaffed and under-resourced. The union is calling for Congress to provide roughly $3 billion in additional funding and eventually add 20,000 employees.
The SSA says (5) its modernization push is working. The agency reported that wait times at field offices fell 23% in fiscal 2025 compared with 2024, while its initial disability claims backlog fell 25%.
For retirees, the overhaul adds another variable to a program already facing serious financial pressure.
The 2026 Board of Trustees Report (6) projects that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays retirement and survivors benefits, will exhaust its reserves in the fourth quarter of 2032, a quarter sooner than it projected last year.
Payroll taxes would continue flowing into the program after depletion, providing enough revenue to initially cover about 78% of scheduled OASI benefits without congressional action.
That puts Social Security on two tracks at once: The agency is trying to serve tens of millions of Americans with fewer workers and more technology, while the retirement program itself moves closer to a funding deadline that will require action from Congress.
