Washington (Washington Insider Magazine) – Elon Musk’s cuts to social security, led by his “Doge” department, are causing severe disruption, with staff warning that the agency is in a “death spiral.”
As reported by The Guardian, workers at the Social Security Administration have revealed that office closures, staffing reductions, and policy changes are leading to “complete chaos.”
The SSA oversees the U.S.’s largest government program, handling retirement, disability, and survivor benefits.
How many Americans will rely on Social Security in 2025 amid budget cuts?
Social Security will provide benefits to almost 69 million Americans monthly in 2025, with the total payout reaching $1.6 trillion and representing 22% of the federal budget.
Despite financial strain and an aging population, Social Security remains widely popular among Americans. The mogul, being the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” has referred to the agency as a “Ponzi scheme” while slashing its budgets and staff.
What did an SSA employee say about the agency’s current plans?
A longtime SSA worker and military veteran, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, stated,
“They have these ‘concepts of plans’ they hope will work, but in reality, they are damaging to the American people.”
He added,
“No one knows what’s going on. They’re just coming up with ideas at the top of their head.”
SSA’s staff reductions and data migration services
Several crashes on the SSA website have been reported this month. Wired reports that Doge staff plan to migrate all social security data and rewrite the code within months, raising worries over system failures and more outages.
The SSA intends to reduce its staff by 7,000 workers through voluntary buyouts, resignations, and firings. The union representatives warn of even deeper cuts, potentially reducing the workforce to 50,000.
How is Acting Commissioner Dudek responding to Doge’s influence at SSA?
Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, stated that Doge is behind the major decisions at the agency. High-profile figures such as Elon Musk and Donald Trump are among those who have publicly stated that these changes are part of an initiative to address widespread fraud at the SSA.
Mr Dudek was appointed as acting commissioner of SSA and reportedly shared information with Doge staff. Concerning a court order preventing Doge from accessing the data, he has warned of shutting down the agency.
What did Dudek say about SSA’s updated policy?
Mr Dudek said,
“We have listened to our customers, Congress, advocates, and others, and we are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country’s most vulnerable populations.”
The SSA’s acting commissioner added,
“In addition to extending the policy’s effective date by two weeks to ensure our employees have the training they need to help customers, Medicare, Disability, and SSI applications will be exempt from in-person identity proofing because multiple opportunities exist during the decision process to verify a person’s identity.”
Why did Rich Couture question Doge’s 7,000 job cuts at SSA?
Rich Couture, representing the American Federation of Government Employees’ Social Security Administration general committee, expressed concerns over Doge’s job cut targets, describing them as nonsensical.
He inquired, Why are they cutting 7,000 jobs? Adding,
“It has never been explained with any degree of clarity how they came up with that figure. What’s being served by that, by a loss of 7,000 jobs? How does any of that supposedly make this operation more efficient? How does it improve service? How does it improve productivity? Our position is that losing 7,000 people doesn’t do any of those things.”
Mr Couture stated,
“I don’t think they’re going to stop at 7,000 people lost. If they lose 10,000 or 12,000, they’re running up their high score. They’re able to brag about it.”
He said,
“There is no safe office in this country,”
Adding,
“It’s a concerted attack on the legitimacy of social security itself. The promise that this country has made to the public for income security is being broken.”
Mr Couture highlighted that SSA’s operating costs have decreased by 20% over the past decade, now standing at less than 1%, arguing that the agency is already efficient despite its fiscal constraints.
He continued,
“You’re going to see a wholesale collapse in the agency’s service structure. Call wait times will skyrocket, wait times for appointments, processing times, all of it is going to skyrocket because there won’t be enough people to do the jobs, which opens the door to privatization.”
What did John Oertel say about fraud at SSA?
John Oertel, who retired after 32 years with SSA in Redding, California, commented, “Fraud cases were rare during my time there.”
He stated,
“Because the agency is so understaffed that people who report their income, that’s not getting reported into the system. Musk and his group are saying Look at all these people who are being overpaid, they must be committing fraud. They’re not committing fraud. They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but because there are so few employees, none of that information is getting into the system.”
Mr Oertel also refuted the accusations from Trump and Musk, clarifying that deceased individuals are not receiving social security benefits.
He said,
“They don’t understand or they don’t care. Those people aren’t collecting benefits, but the numbers are still technically active, because you can’t just erase social security numbers,”
Adding,
“President Trump, Elon Musk, and whoever the next commissioner is going to be, I think their ultimate goal is just to destroy social security.”
What did the SSA spokesperson say about claims of waste, fraud, and abuse?
An SSA representative said,
“The agency will continue to monitor and, if necessary, make adjustments to ensure it pays the right person the right amount at the right time while safeguarding the benefits and programs it administers.”
The rate of Social Security direct deposit fraud in 2024
Social Security direct deposit fraud in 2024 stood at 0.00635%, and fewer than 1% of social security payments were found to be inaccurate.
