Social Security officials try to get ahead of DOGE with own employee buyout

It’s in the headlines every day: How President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is calling for more government program cuts and employee layoffs.

Many times it’s purely logical, as the targets are doing jobs and handling responsibilities that the law doesn’t authorize them to run.

And now the agenda is starting to gain traction, as officials at the Social Security Administration have proposed their own buyout program for workers who volunteer to leave.

A report at the Washington Examiner explains that employees are being offered up to $25,000 to resign, just as a warning was issued that “offices that perform functions not mandated by statute may be prioritized for reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in staffing.”

The announce comes just days after the Office of Personnel Management “issued a memorandum earlier this week advising agency heads to have their reorganization plans developed by March 13, including reductions in the workforce as part of the Department of Government Efficiency‘s efforts to cut waste in the federal government,” the report explained.

DOGE, run by Elon Musk, already has called for massive cuts in spending – and staffing – of the government. For example, it essentially said the USAID agency was spending tax money in egregiously wrong ways, including on various social agenda ideologies, and its entire operations should be ended.

Ultimately, a fraction of USAID workers and responsibilities were transferred to the Department of State, with the rest losing their positions.

SSA officials, apparently trying to get ahead of specific mandates from DOGE, announced the realignment of staffing, and said they “may reassign employees from non-mission critical positions to mission-critical direct service positions.”

The options being offered include reassignment, early retirement, optional retirement, or voluntary separation incentive payments.

Those payments would be offered through March 14 on a first-come basis and provide workers with a general schedule 8 or lower getting $15,000, GS 9-12 employees getting $20,000, and GS 13 or higher employees getting $25,000.

Already, SSA offices including the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation were closed down and workers placed on administrative leave for now.