Social Security to close hearing office in New York

The Social Security Administration plans to close a hearings office in suburban New York when its lease ends in May, as Elon Musk reportedly prepares to cancel thousands of federal leases across government.

The White Plains, N.Y., Office of Hearing Operations clears more than 2,000 disability benefits cases each year and currently has a backlog of 2,000 pending cases. When its lease ends May 31, it will shutter, with no plans to move employees to a successor building; instead, workers will be reassigned to other offices in the “tri-state area.”

The news comes amid reports that Elon Musk and President Trump have tasked the General Services Administration with terminating all 7,500 government leases nationwide. The Social Security Administration’s various field offices, hearing offices, teleservice centers and other facilities account for around 1,300 of those leases.

“How do you take a very busy urban New York-area hearing office and not replace it?” asked Rich Couture, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 215, which represents hearing office workers. “The commute for claimants and employees alike would be far more difficult—Albany is two hours north, and then there are New York City-proper offices, but it’s hard to commute into the city.”

In a letter to Acting Social Security Commissioner Michelle King Friday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., demanded information on the impact closing the White Plains office will have on disability hearing wait times and Americans’ ability to continue to receive the agency’s services.

“If SSA does not open an alternative site, beneficiaries will be required to travel between 24 and 135 miles to be serviced by the closest offices in New York City, Albany, New Jersey and Connecticut,” she wrote. “Travel by private vehicle or public transportation to any of these alternative locations would pose greater hardship for constituents, while also significantly increasing the costs and time associated with travel.”

Couture said the agency has already terminated at least two other leases for satellite hearing offices in SSA regions 4 and 5, which cover the South and Great Lakes regions. While that decision would have made sense prior to Trump’s inauguration, as claimants have widely abandoned in-person disability hearings in favor of new virtual options developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more puzzling now, as the Trump administration pushes to end telework across government.

“The agency might say, ‘We’re closing those because 90% of hearings are virtual now,’ but that argument undermines the return-to-office mandate,” he said. “If the overwhelming choice of the public is to have virtual hearings, there’s very limited reason to have people on-site at full capacity five days a week . . . If they do this with no successor space and they do this to the permanent remote sites, then you’re very likely going to see this happen with field offices, branch offices and resident stations out there that could also close.”

SSA did not respond to a request for comment.