SocSec abandons DOGE-led phone service cuts amid chaos, backlash

Lethe200

Senior Member
Social Security abandons DOGE-led phone service cuts amid chaos, backlash
The shift amounts to a wholesale retreat by Musk’s team and the Social Security leadership in their bid to dramatically curtail telephone access to services.
Washington Post April 9, 2025

Elon Musk’s cost-cutting operation, the U.S. DOGE Service, set off a panic in March among elderly and disabled people after proposing that the Social Security Administration scrap many of its claims services over the phone in an effort to end alleged identity fraud.

Beneficiaries began lining up at field offices across the country, clutching driver’s licenses and asking if they must prove who they were in person. Phone wait times ballooned and the agency’s website started crashing almost daily under a crush of panicked callers and visitors. Besieged by angry constituents, lawmakers demanded that the acting commissioner end the chaos.

Now, after nearly a month of chaos and backlash, the DOGE plans are dead.

According to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, plans to force people awarded retirement, disability and Medicare benefits to set up direct-deposit payments online or in person have been canceled after the agency concluded it could vet these transactions for fraud by phone. Those applying for benefits can also continue the process by phone without the need to go online or visit an office in person, according to the Monday memo from acting deputy commissioner Doris Diaz to acting commissioner Leland Dudek.

At the same time, the agency will implement a new fraud-detecting tool to “flag suspect teleclaims based on known, common characteristics of fraudulent claims,” the memo said. Only if an applicant’s phone call is flagged will they be required to show up in person, according to the memo.

The shift amounts to a wholesale retreat by Musk’s team and the Social Security leadership in their bid to dramatically curtail telephone access to services. The changes announced by Dudek in March and pushed by members of the DOGE team would have directed all people filing claims to first verify their identity online or in person. The new system would have removed a phone option, in place for years, which has come to be a mainstay for the 73 million Americans who rely on Social Security for retirement, survivor and disability benefits and Medicare claims.

After lawmakers and advocates warned of consequences for a population ill-equipped to navigate a website or show up to a field office, Social Security in late March backed off the tighter requirements for those with disabilities but said those applying for retirement or survivor benefits would still need to do so online or in person. The agency handles about 9.5 million claims each year, and about 40 percent come in over the phone.

The fraud tool will debut by April 14, the same day some of the phone services were scheduled to end, the memo states. The memo warns the new strategy may lead to the “false-positive flagging of legitimate teleclaims” but says it’s still a better option than limiting phone service for retirees or disabled customers, which would have caused tens of thousands of confused Americans to descend on field offices every week.
 

Good to hear! We tried to create our new sign-ins last fall but the website totally screwed up our attempts and no one from Soc. Sec. Tech Service every called us back. IF we want to access Soc. Sec. online we will have to go to the local office (which, I have heard, has moved 4 times with no forwarding address) and have them set us up with the new system. Otherwise we're getting our Direct Deposit so far without incident. I worry that when we move to that ultimate Retirement Castle, it will be difficult to change our address.
 

Social Security blames old technology, not ‘DOGE,’ for latest website crash: ‘It’s a 1979 platform’
MSN

The Social Security Administration said on Tuesday that unusually high traffic to its “my Social Security” website and an old computer system led to an online outage, according to a post on social-media website X.​
The agency also rebutted criticism that the website outage was tied to the involvement of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE.” The problem “had nothing to do with DOGE,” which is led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also owns the X platform. “In fact, this problem has alerted [the SSA] to an issue that DOGE will promptly fix,” the SSA said in its post.​
 
As I posted previously in another thread, on March 28th, I was unable to set up an account when I tried because I got a pop up that said it would not accept my phone number. A notice also popped up that said they would mail a "code" to my physical address with instructions on how to enter it and complete the process, which would activate the account, and that I should receive this "code" within 5 days.

It is now 14 days later and I have yet to receive it. So it doesn't matter to me whether it's fake news or not, I have an account that's in limbo and is useless to me, and that after I first selected the option to "go green" (paperless). So I may now be paperless, making me worse off than if I had never attempted to set up an account.
 
UPDATE to my previous post: I just now called Social Security. The phone is answered by a recording that says (in part) that I cannot change my direct deposit information by phone, only online or at a local office (not the exact words).

After listening to the menu options, none of which applied, I asked to speak with an agent. The recording then directed me to say or enter my SS number, which I did, only to get another recording that said the hold time is greater than 120 minutes, but did not allow me to remain on hold 120 minutes because it then said "call back another time."

So much for that.
 
Well, I went ahead and set up my online account even though I already had direct deposit. The information about whether I had to do this was very vague IMO. After reading everything I could find on it it seemed I did not have to do it but it would be easier to handle changes in the future if I did. Now, of course, they are backing off on the requirement to do it.

As @MACKTEXAS so, so much for that.
 
I agree going in to an SSA office is a big inconvenience ....I enjoyed my last trip as a people watcher it was amusing to see a young woman ask how she could qualify for disability cause she never wants to work ... the employee thought he was being pranked.

I think the " convenience" was an open door to fraud. The suspected amount is 40% of attempted online change to direct deposit inquiries to be fraudulent .... i guess this is how many keep a relatives check coming if the relative passes and it is not known.

it is not only SSA but many government agencies ... i guess protecting those who are hit by fraud is too hard for government employees. Most who complain about inconvenience would feel different if the fraud hit them

When I paid my property taxes I found I could change a name on my title online no real proof needed .... and yet the answer to the title theft is NOT prove you are who you are........... but buy some insurance program for title protection.

It is an embarrassment that computer systems from 30-40 years ago are still being used. Same as the government retirement process was on paper and in a cave of storage.....
 
I’ve had an online social security account for many years, long before I started to draw social security. There have been no issues logging in and navigating their website.

I had to change my address on file when we moved, and because I happened to be right by a social security office I popped in and took care of it in person. Small country office and the wait time was minimal.

I wonder what would have happened if I’d tried to do it online?
 
Social Security blames old technology, not ‘DOGE,’ for latest website crash: ‘It’s a 1979 platform’
MSN

The Social Security Administration said on Tuesday that unusually high traffic to its “my Social Security” website and an old computer system led to an online outage, according to a post on social-media website X.​
The agency also rebutted criticism that the website outage was tied to the involvement of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE.” The problem “had nothing to do with DOGE,” which is led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also owns the X platform. “In fact, this problem has alerted [the SSA] to an issue that DOGE will promptly fix,” the SSA said in its post.​
To tech experts, the DOGE/SSA statement is a joke. Musk's team know NOTHING about COBOL s/w which is what runs the mainframes that are the structural backbone of all tech data. They are more like to break it than to "fix it".

It's like giving a 5-yr old a hammer and saying, "Fix this leaky faucet, okay? Thanks, kid!"
 


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