When Eleanor H., 66, called on the Social Security Service last month, asking for details of the benefits of her retirement, she did not expect to comfort the respondent who responded. The woman began to shout.
“I asked her what was wrong and said that she was informed by her colleagues to receive a $ 20,000 taxable payment or the risk termination,” said Eleanor, who lives in New Jersey (asked to use only her name from privacy concerns).
The spokesman also answered all Eleanor’s questions. “Through her tears she said,” What will I do? ”
The Social Security Service, which sends retirement, survivors and disability payments to 73 million people each month, has long been called the “third railway” policy – largely untouched, given its widespread popularity and role as one of the rest of the country.
But in recent weeks, Trump’s administration, led by the crew of Elon Musk’s cutting costs in the government efficiency or Doge, took its chain for business businesses. The organization has announced plans to reduce 12 % of its workforce, at a time when its staffing is 50 years low. It has also provided early retirement and other incentives, including payments of up to $ 25,000, to all staff.
Many today and former social security officials fear that cuts could create holes in the infrastructure of the organization, destabilizing the program, which holds millions of people from poverty and high rates of pensioners are based on most of their income.
Actions have caused social security employees and former commissioners and executives of both parties to hear alarm bells, saying it would be difficult to repair the damage that could threaten access to benefits.
“Everything they have done so far is to break the organization’s ability to serve the public,” said Martin O’Malley, the most recent former Social Security Commissioner under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. He said he was afraid that Mr Musk’s team had taken most of the actions needed to create a comprehensive collapse of the system, either in waiting for customer service, system holidays or for paying advantages.
In a statement to the New York Times, the Social Security Service said that it “detects the effectiveness and reduction of costs, with a refreshed focus on the critical work of the mission”, including rationalizing unnecessary management strata and “pledges to ensure that Americans are needed”.
The benefits of social security cannot be changed without legislation passed by Congress. But the delivery of these wages – and allowing young people to register or make changes – is based on a complex set of systems powered using programming languages developed in the 1970s.
People who can work the most of the old systems of the body are, perhaps not surprise, near or already eligible for retirement. At least 30 % of the technical staff in the office of the information manager fits in these categories, former executives estimate.
“We are considering a degradation of the system as a whole because we have an entire line of expertise walking outside the door,” said Shelley Washington, executive vice president of the US Federation of Government Workers Local 1923, a federal unit. “They first certify and aim later.”
He said that the delivery of controls for people who have already registered the system should not be affected, for now – but it is becoming more and more uncertain who will be around to quickly correct the issues when they arise.
Michael Astrue, a former service commissioner appointed by President George W. Bush, said that Mr Musk had introduced the strategy he used when he bought the Twitter: “Wherever you go to a place that was established, you are leveled and then you will be improvised”. “
Jason Fichtner, who held several positions in the organization, including the Deputy Commissioner and the Head of Economist, put it even more blunt in the briefing. “It’s more like a drunkard who works a bullet,” he said.
The White House issued a statement on Tuesday, reiterating that President Trump would not reduce social security, Medicare or Medicaid.
Few disagreements that aging technology needs to be re -launched. The system has not undergone significant review because Congress has not made money for it. It is also a huge business and the lack of continuity in the leadership makes it difficult to execute, reported today’s and former staff and technology staff. It would take about five to seven years and would cost more than $ 2 billion, according to a former executive technology who did not want to be named because the analysis was not completed.
Although experts who are familiar with the organization’s businesses recognized that there was room for improvement of effectiveness, they said it was already running. The Agency operates with a budget of less than 1 % of annual benefits, which provide retirement, survivors and disability payments.
“This is extremely low,” Mr O’Malley said, noting that it is much lower than the administrative cost of private insurers.
Confidentiality concerns
This has not stopped Mr Musk’s team. Even without a permanent commissioner, the Agency makes major decisions: he has already said that he will eliminate 7,000 of the 57,000 people in the workforce and will close six of his 10 regional offices, which coordinate and provide support to employees.
Of the 1,200 field offices that directly serve the public, more than 40 must close, according to social security projects, a defense team. The team is trying to track the changes, but said its data was based on an unreliable list released by Doge. (The social security headquarters itself was also on a closing list, then later fell.)
Two dozen staff members have announced their departures, including the three leading cyberspace executives, according to a note issued on February 28 by Leland C. Dudek, the active commissioner of the Social Security Service. He took the reins when Michelle King, the previous commissioner, left abruptly after refusing to give Doge representatives access to private data.
Tiffany Flick, the former head of the organization’s staff with 30 years of social security service, recently spoke about the events around this episode, which also led to her retirement. She expressed deep concerns about the security of confidential data and the program as a whole, according to her chartered testimony on March 6 in federal trial. The data, he said, have already been misinterpreted and used to spread misinformation.
Mike Russo, the new head of information, “appeared completely focused on questions from Doge officials based on the general myth of the supposedly widespread social security fraud rather than events,” Flick said.
Her “violation of critical procedures” and her “significant loss of expertise” have seriously left their concern that programs will not continue to operate without a disorder.
“This could lead to payments of benefits that are not paid or delayed in payments,” he said.
Angela Digeronimo, a Specialist and Leader of the Union in New Jersey, who has been with social security for 28 years, said she believed she was a witness to the organization’s dismantling.
“It will affect the public in a very tangible way,” he said, speaking in their capacity as a Union employee, noting that it takes about eight months for candidates in the disability program to find out if they are eligible. “I hate to say this, but more and more people will die while waiting for medical determination about their disability claim.”
Concerns about customer service
Nicole Francis, a financial designer in New York, called on the organization last month on behalf of a 100 -year -old customer who wanted to change the bank to which its benefits were deposited. Ms. Francis knew there would be a wait, but she didn’t expect it to be more than two hours.
Instead of holding, she visited her client at home and helped her make the change with a new online account.
“All senior Americans have no credible representative and must have the choice of customer service,” he said.
Last week, in an effort to combat fraud, the organization said it would no longer allow beneficiaries to change bank information over the phone – only online or in person.
Mr Musk said he wants to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the organization, but he and President Trump have continued to repeat false allegations that millions of dead are collecting benefits.
In fact, the Social Security Office of the Inspector General, who is accused of disclosing fraud and ineffectiveness, published a report in 2023 explaining why these people have not recorded deaths but also do not collect checks.
“Both Musk and Trump are largely incorrectly the death data,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability at the priority and priority center and former adviser to the service. (Mr. Trump also shot the inspector General.)
Last week, Mr Musk, who called on the social security of a Ponzi program, claimed that programs such as they were used to attract illegal immigrants. The Agency said it collects more than $ 20 billion in payroll taxes per year from unauthorized employees, most of whom never collect benefits.
“By mixing these allegations of fraud with these party attacks, I think the public confuses,” said Jack Smalligan, a senior associate of the urban institute and former deputy deputy director at the Office of Administration and Budget.
Aggressive management cost cuts has begun to worry about retirees such as Eleanor H., who has arrived at the Social Security Representative.
He said he would not be able to survive the retirement without the control of social security, but he has become so restless for the administration’s actions that he called to see how much he would receive if he submitted benefits early, a few months before her full retirement age. Healthy retirees are often advised not to claim early because they expect larger locks in higher benefits.
The spokesman assured Eleanor that he thought the benefits of retirement would be safe.
“They will be busy coming for us,” he told her.
Susan C. Beachy and Jack Begg He contributed research.
