Callers to Social Security’s 800 Number Waited an Average of 5.6 Minutes in Fiscal 2026, Down From 28 Minutes in 2024, the Agency Says

Two years ago, a retiree dialing Social Security’s toll-free line could expect to sit through close to half an hour of hold music on an average call. The agency now says that wait is down to a few minutes. In a release on Oct. 23, the Social Security Administration said callers to its national 800 number waited an average of 5.6 minutes in fiscal 2026, down from 28 minutes in fiscal 2024.

The number lands as beneficiaries sort out their 2027 cost-of-living notices and Medicare open enrollment runs through Dec. 7, a stretch when many people have questions for the agency.

The Numbers Social Security Released

The agency called fiscal 2026, which ended Sept. 30, its best overall performance ever. Its release listed these results for the phone line and other services:

• Average speed of answer on the 800 number: 5.6 minutes, an improvement of almost 80% from fiscal 2024
• Busy rate: zero percent over the last six months
• Calls handled by intelligent routing and the automated phone menu: 40%
• Field office wait times: down more than 30% from fiscal 2024, with nearly 30 million visitors served
• Initial disability claims: average processing time down 40 days, or 17%, from fiscal 2024
• Disability claims backlog: down 23%, from nearly 1.2 million at the end of fiscal 2024 to 911,000

Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano credited a “digital-first strategy” for what he called “transformational improvements and historic results.”

The agency’s public performance page shows the same direction month by month, reporting an average speed of answer of 0.5 minutes in August 2026 and an answer rate of nearly 99%.

What the Average Leaves Out

The 5.6-minute figure is an average speed of answer, and how that number is calculated has been disputed for more than a year.

After Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questioned the agency’s wait-time data, Bisignano agreed to have the inspector general audit it, according to an Axios report posted by her office in September 2025. The resulting December 2025 report from Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General found that the agency’s published 800-number metrics were accurate, but it also spelled out what they do not measure.

The path to the new figure was bumpy. According to the agency’s own summary of that audit, the average wait was 30 minutes in January 2025 and 7 minutes by September 2025, while the agency served 65% more callers than the year before.

The biggest gap is callbacks. When a caller accepts an offer to be called back instead of holding, the agency counts that caller’s wait as zero. Money Talks News, reviewing the audit, reported that callback waits averaged 1 hour and 49 minutes in October 2024 and 1 hour and 2 minutes in September 2025.

Calls that never reached anyone are also left out. Abandoned calls peaked at 3.4 million in January 2025 and fell to 911,000 by September 2025, and about 25 million calls in fiscal 2025 ended without service, including hang-ups and unanswered callbacks, the same report said.

Nextgov/FCW reported that callers who stayed on hold in fiscal 2025 waited an average of 59 minutes, about 43 minutes longer than the reported average. Warren said Bisignano “lied about call wait times to cover up his customer service mess.” The agency, in its release on the audit, said the report confirmed its numbers were accurate and that it was “serving more Americans at significantly faster speeds than ever before.”

The Oct. 23 release does not say whether fiscal 2026 callback waits were shorter. It reports the average speed of answer, the busy rate and the answer rate, not the hold time for callers who chose a callback.

Fewer Workers, More Automation

The agency credits technology for the change. Its release says automated routing and the phone menu handled 40% of calls in fiscal 2026, and Nextgov reported that the inspector general found automation handled 37% of calls in fiscal 2025, with employees handling 35%.

The online side has grown too. The agency’s release says more than 571 million transactions were completed online in fiscal 2026, a 30% jump from fiscal 2024, and that logins to my Social Security rose by more than 10 million over the past year.

Staff have also been moved. Money Talks News reported that since July 2025, roughly 1,000 field office employees a day have answered 800-number calls, an effect on local offices the audit did not assess. The same report cited the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ finding that the agency lost about 7,500 employees, or 13%, between January 2025 and January 2026.

Getting Through With the Least Waiting

Many routine requests never need a phone call. The agency says it now has more than 105 million registered my Social Security accounts, which Money Talks News notes can be used to change an address or direct deposit, print benefit forms or request a replacement card. Anyone still waiting on the 2027 raise can also check the Nov. 18 cutoff for seeing the COLA notice online instead of calling about it.

For people who do call, the audit’s numbers suggest a practical trade-off: a callback skips the hold queue, but in fiscal 2025 the return call came about an hour or more later on average, and a missed callback counted as a call without service. Keeping the phone nearby after accepting one avoids starting over.

Those planning around next year’s numbers can find the 3.6% COLA and new average check and the 2027 earnings limit for working beneficiaries without waiting on hold at all.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Shixart1985 – CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons