As cuts hit Social Security, Chicago-area residents call it a 'disaster for ordinary people'

Vallabh Patel's wife, 62, recently started having trouble walking due to a medical condition. The couple tried to set up Social Security disability payments for her, but they found the bureaucracy too cumbersome and the system too difficult to navigate.

Frustrated, they headed to the Evanston office of the Social Security Administration last week, hoping to get her enrolled for payments based on her age. They were greeted by a long line of other people also trying to get help. Though they eventually got the enrollment process started, they have a ways to go to get benefits for her.

“The system is broken," said Patel, 70, of Skokie. There are "too many complications that need to be addressed. … It’s a disaster for ordinary people who need this money for their daily life, ordinary people like us.”

Patel, who is working but already receives benefits himself, is among the 2.3 million people in Illinois who rely on Social Security — a fraction of the more than 73.2 million, including retirees and children, who receive retirement and disability benefits nationwide.

He fears things will only get worse since the Trump administration announced major changes and staffing cuts at SSA offices around the country.

The SSA plans to shutter 47 Social Security offices nationwide, including 26 this month, and has already laid out plans to lay off thousands of workers, which could potentially expand to half of the agency’s entire staff.

Meanwhile, the agency kicked off widespread confusion last month when it announced people seeking benefits or changing their direct deposit information could no longer verify their identity over the phone, only to largely reverse course weeks later after a backlash from lawmakers and advocates.

Currently, those who can't verify their identity over the agency’s online or phone services are required to visit a field office in person. The change will apply to new applicants who are flagged by the new fraud detection systems and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.

The upheaval comes as 2025 sees the smallest cost-of-living adjustment since 2021, amounting to 2.5%, or a little more than $50 a month . Many say they have since struggled to keep up with inflated grocery prices and skyrocketing housing costs — which recent studies have shown make up a disproportionate amount of Chicagoans’ spending.

For Patel, property taxes are some of his biggest expenses after he cleaned out his retirement accounts to send his kids to college. When he stops working in a few years, he and his wife will be fully reliant on Social Security and savings. It's made him cut back on groceries and stopped him from replacing his nearly 30-year-old car.

“I’ve never received a single penny or anything free in my life," said Patel, who has worked various jobs for nearly 50 years, in factories and, most recently, making highway signs. “If I have limited income, how am I going to pay property taxes?”

At the SSA office in Kenwood, neighborhood resident Joshua Wilkins said the upcoming changes to the system could turn Social Security into a “broken promise.” The warehouse worker won't be receiving a pension, and had planned on the monthly payments as a safety net when he gets too old to work the hours of overtime he does now.

“Twenty years ago, I thought I’d fall back on Social Security just to eat and live,” said Wilkins, 46, who went to the office to get a replacement Social Security card. “As much money as we all pay in taxes, as much hard work we all do, especially veterans, there shouldn’t be any fear whether they’ll have a house over their head or [have to] choose between medication and food.”

He said he has considered getting on disability himself and working part time since he qualifies due to illness, but he was dissuaded because it felt "greedy" since he is still able to work.

Now, seeing the federal government making cuts to the system, he thinks the money saved on cutting federal workers isn't "about saving money at all." It will go for tax cuts to corporations like Walmart, he said, which exploited communities like his by opening stores, establishing a monopoly and then closing them in recent years.

He fears staffing cuts will make it harder to collect payments people have earned.

"There’ll be a lot of people who will lose benefits. … I just hope I can adjust and save some money of my own, because the government isn’t going to keep its promises,” he said.

James Stewart, a 65-year-old Lincoln Square resident, went to the office in his neighborhood last Friday to sort out some issues with his Medicare account. He said he was frustrated that he had to call several times to get an appointment, and then had to wait two hours for what ended up taking 10 minutes to fix.

He disagrees with those who think the staffing cuts will hurt service. With less staff, he said he expects wait times to drop because it’ll force “useless” federal employees to “work harder.”

Social Security workers "do nothing. It’s like the easiest job in the world,” Stewart claimed. “They’ve got nothing on their plate. Put something on there for once.”

Contributing: The Associated Press