Social Security lists its offices in Medford, Oregon, Altoona, Pennsylvania and Danville, Virginia as phone only, with no in-person service. The agency’s list of emergency office changes names all three without an end date. In all, the list names 21 offices in 12 states, and every other state and territory shows all offices open. Anyone who usually walks in with a payment problem, an address change or a direct-deposit question has to start with a call.
For beneficiaries who use those three offices, the question is how to get help when a payment goes missing or arrives wrong. Social Security’s answer is to call the local office. The number is in the Field Office Locator, under the heading Additional Office Information.
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What Social Security says about the three offices
The agency’s list of office closings and emergency changes carries each of the three in its own entry. Medford, ZIP code 97504, is described as only able to provide assistance by telephone, with no in-person service. No duration appears in the entry.
Altoona, ZIP 16602, and Danville, ZIP 24540, get the same wording: assistance by telephone only and no in-person service. Neither entry gives an end date or a notice date. The date fields that sit beside most entries are blank, so none of the three comes with a start date either.
Seven other offices on the same list carry a phrase the three lack: “until further notice.” They are Hoboken, New Jersey; Canarsie, Corning and West Nyack, New York; Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; Logan, West Virginia; and Cody, Wyoming. Martinsburg, West Virginia, is also phone only, with its dates left blank. The agency describes these changes as temporary.
A second group on the list is not phone only all day. Offices in Melbourne, Kissimmee, Port St. Lucie, Leesburg and Ocala, Florida, Vicksburg and Starkville, Mississippi, Roswell, New Mexico, and Columbia, South Carolina, stop in-person service at set times, from 9:45 a.m. in Starkville to 2:15 p.m. in Columbia. Phone help continues at those offices until 4 p.m.
Counted another way, the list has 21 entries. Three have no duration at all, which are the Medford, Altoona and Danville offices. Seven say “until further notice,” Martinsburg is phone only with blank dates, nine stop in-person service at a set hour, and the Minneapolis hearing office is phone only for hearings.
How to reach a phone-only office
Social Security’s instruction for a missing payment is short. If a regular payment does not arrive because of severe weather or another emergency, the agency tells beneficiaries to call the local Social Security office. That is the step for someone in Medford, Altoona or Danville, since no counter is open.
The Field Office Locator takes an address, city, state or ZIP code and returns the office’s hours, its phone, TTY and fax numbers, and a link to check for temporary closings. It also links to a page for booking an appointment before visiting an office.
The locator sorts offices by what they handle. Card centers deal with new or replacement Social Security cards and personal information updates. Express card services offices handle similar card tasks and take drop-box items but not benefit applications or appeals. Some offices have limited services and cannot replace cards, so a different office may be needed for those.
The national number is 1-800-772-1213, with a TTY line at 1-800-325-0778, according to Social Security’s page on reporting a death. It lists hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, in most U.S. time zones.
Some errands do not need an office at all. A my Social Security account lets a person request a replacement Social Security number card, change an address or direct deposit, and print proof of benefits or tax forms. None of the three needs a visit to a counter.
The early-stop offices have specific cutoffs. In-person service ends at 2:00 p.m. in Melbourne, 1:00 p.m. in Kissimmee, Port St. Lucie and Leesburg, 10:30 a.m. in Ocala, 10:45 a.m. in Vicksburg, 9:45 a.m. in Starkville, 10:15 a.m. Mountain time in Roswell and 2:15 p.m. in Columbia. After those times, callers get phone help until 4 p.m.
Beneficiaries elsewhere can use the same Field Office Locator to see whether their own office appears. The locator carries a link to closings and emergencies for each office, and the list shows all offices open in every state and territory not named above.
Direct deposit and the Direct Express card
The same emergency list promotes two ways to keep payments moving when mail is disrupted: direct deposit and the Direct Express card. Social Security presents both as protection against mail interruptions.
There is also a hearing office on the list. The Minneapolis hearing office is phone only, with in-person and video hearings to be rescheduled and phone or online video hearings going ahead. Claimants with a hearing there are told they will be contacted to reschedule.
For the three offices in the headline, the open question is when in-person service returns, and Social Security has not said. Until it does, a missed payment in Medford, Altoona or Danville starts with a phone call and a note of the date it was due.
Missed a payment while the local office is phone-only?
A late or short payment cannot wait for an office to reopen, and with no counter to walk up to, the first phone call decides how fast it is fixed. Beneficiaries in Medford, Altoona and Danville are working from a number and a hold queue, not a desk.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit has a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment and the 2026 payment calendar, so the due date is on paper before the call. Part 4, Late, Short or Wrong Payments, walks through what to say and what to write down.
Get the check protection kit with the 2026 payment calendar →
More Financial Reading
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
