How to Increase Usage of Social Security’s Online Tools

The brief’s key findings are:

• The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) online tools could help meet the increasing demand for SSA services, but only half of retirees apply online.
• A new CRR survey suggests that the share who claim completely online, without contacting an SSA representative, may be even lower – about 35 percent.
• Going forward, the advance of more computer-literate cohorts could increase online claiming by a few percentage points.
• But policies that push more retirees to handle basic inquiries online and eliminate obstacles to online use could drive up the share by about 20 percentage points.
• While such gains would be substantial, a meaningful share of retirees will likely always choose to contact SSA when claiming.