POUGHKEEPSIE – Congressman Pat Ryan (D, NY-18) and several county and local leaders met with seniors at the Dutchess County Office for the Aging on Monday to discuss the tentative closing of the Poughkeepsie Social Security office. .
When the supposed “temporary” closure of the Poughkeepsie office was announced, Congressman Ryan warned of a more permanent reduction in care. “Many seniors are unable to physically make it to further offices, and with seven million seniors relying on Social Security for more than 90 percent of their income, this kind of obstacle can serve as a fatal roadblock to accessing benefits,” Ryan said while citing recent data from the Center for American Progress showing that when field offices close, the number of Social Security recipients receiving disability benefits in the area .
“Social Security represents a sacred promise to our seniors. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are breaking that promise every day, and Hudson Valley families are paying the price,” warned Ryan. “They’re coming after our personal information, they’re closing Social Security offices, they’re mass firing staff, and they’re threatening the survival of the program itself. We’re elevating voices from across the Hudson Valley so they can hear us all the way down in Washington: hands off our Social Security.”
Amanda Bracco works at the Poughkeepsie SSA office and told the seniors that management has been unable to clarify the status of the office. Bracco also serves as a union representative for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3343, which represents the SSA employees in Poughkeepsie. “Throughout this whole experience over the past few weeks, there has been an overall lack of clarity and communication from SSA. We at the Union had to bring up to management’s attention that the Poughkeepsie Social Security office was found on the DOGE list and up until last week, local management was instructed not to meet with their staff, even when we asked management to do so,” she said. “In fact, we got updates from articles with comments from SSA days before we got information through the appropriate internal channels. The people that suffer are those that rely on Social Security in the Hudson Valley.”
Dutchess County Legislator Randy Johnson represents the City of Poughkeepsie and told that he is trying to work with federal, state, and county leaders to fight the potential closure of the office while also seeking ways to assist the area seniors with transportation to the Middletown SSA office to allow for in-person assistance. “They closed the Kingston office and they closed the Newburgh office. Enough is enough. I can only hope that Congressman Ryan gets his ‘Protecting Social Security Act’ legislation passed to prevent the SSA from creating more barriers for our seniors and others who rely on Social Security for survival.” Ryan’s bill would require the SSA to establish an office in each of New York’s 62 counties.
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