When Eleanor H., 66, called the Social Security Administration last month that he was looking for details about his retirement benefits, he did not expect to comfort the representative who responded. The woman began to sob.
“I asked him what was wrong, and she said that she and her co -workers were informed by email to accept an taxable payment of $ 20,000 or the risk termination,” said Eleanor, who lives in New Jersey (asked to use only her first name for privacy concerns).
The representative still answered all Eleanor’s questions. “Through his tears he said: ‘What am I going to do?'”
The Social Security administration, which sends retirement payments, survivors and disabilities to 73 million people each month, has long been called the “third railway” of politics, largely untouchable given its generalized popularity and their role as one of the remaining security networks of the country.
But in recent weeks, the Trump Administration, led by the Cost Cutter Cortator Musk in the Government’s efficiency department, or Doge, has taken its chain saw to the agency’s operations. The agency has announced plans to reduce up to 12 percent of its workforce, at one time its staff is at a minimum of 50 years. He has also offered early retirement and other incentives, including payments of up to $ 25,000, to all staff.
Many current and previous social security officials fear that cuts can create open holes in the agency’s infrastructure, destabilizing the program, which keeps millions of people out of poverty and large percentages of retirees trust for most of their income.
The actions have caused Social Security employees and the former commissioners and executives of both parties to systemize alarms, saying that it would be difficult to repair the damage, which could threaten access to the benefits.
“Everything they have done so far is to break the agency’s ability to serve the public,” said Martin O’Malley, former most recent Social Security Commissioner under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said that he feared that Mr. Musk’s team would have taken most of the necessary actions to create a total collapse of the system, either in waiting times for waiting times for customer service, system interruption timely to the benefits of the benefits of benefits.
In a statement to the New York Times, the Social Security Administration said it was “identifying the efficiency and reduction of costs, with a renewed approach in the critical work of the mission”, including the rationalization of redundant management layers, and is “committed to ensuring that Americans obtain the help they need.”
Social Security benefits cannot be changed without the legislation approved by Congress. But the delivery of these payment checks, and allowing new people to register or make changes, is based on a complex set of systems that are fed using programming languages ​​developed in the 1970s.
People who can more skillfully operate the old agency’s systems, may not be surprising, near or are already eligible for retirement. At least 30 percent of the technical personnel in the information director’s office fits these categories, the former executives estimated.
“We are seeing a degradation of the system as a whole because we have a full line of experience that goes through the door,” said Shelley Washington, executive vice president of the American Federation of Employees of the Local Government 1923, a unit of the Federal Union of Workers. “They are shooting first and pointing later.”
He said that the delivery of checks for people already registered in the system should not be affected for now, but it is becoming increasingly uncertain who will be present to solve the problems quickly when they arise.
Michael Astrue, a former commissioner of the agency appointed by President George W. Bush, said that Musk seemed the strategy he used when he bought Twitter, “where you enter somewhere established, level and then believe that you are going to promote the exit,” he said, speaking in information about the National Academy of Social Insertion. “It’s extremely destructive.”
Jason Fichtner, who held several positions in the agency, including the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Economist, expressed even more bluntly in the informative session. “It’s more like a drunk that operates a demolition ball,” he said.
The White House issued a statement on Tuesday, reiterating that President Trump would not reduce the benefits of Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
Few dispute that aging technology needs a restart. The system has not suffered an important review because Congress has not assigned money for it. It is also a huge company, and the lack of continuity in leadership makes it difficult to carry out, said current and previous technology staff. It would take approximately five to seven years and cost more than $ 2 billion, according to a former technology executive, who did not want to be appointed because the analysis had not been completed.
Although experts familiar with the agency’s operations acknowledged that there was room to improve efficiency, they said it was already executed in a inclined way. The agency operates in a budget of less than 1 percent of its annual benefits payments, which provide retirement payments, survivors and disabilities.
“This is extremely low,” said O’Malley, noting that it is much lower than the administrative costs of private insurers.
Confidentiality concerns
That has not stopped Mr. Musk’s team. Even without a permanent commissioner, the agency is making great decisions: it has already said that it would eliminate 7,000 of its workforce of 57,000 people, and will close six of its 10 regional offices, which would coordinate and provide support to employees.
Of its 1,200 field offices that serve directly to the public, more than 40 must be closed, according to Social Security Works, a defense group. The group is trying to track the changes, but said that their data were based on an unreliable list published by Dege. (The Social Security headquarters was also on a list of closures, then then fell).
Two dozen of higher personnel members have announced their departures, including the three main cyber security executives of the agency, according to a memorandum issued on February 28 of Leland C. Dudek, the interim commissioner of the Social Security Administration. He took the reins when Michelle King, the previous interim commissioner, left abruptly after refusing to give Dog’s representatives access to private data.
Tiffany Flick, former chief of interim staff of the agency with 30 years of service in Social Security, recently told events around that episode, which also led to his retirement. He expressed deep concerns about confidential data security and the program in general, according to his jury testimony on March 6 in a federal lawsuit. The data, he said, have already been misunderstood and used to disseminate the wrong information.
Mike Russo, the new information director, “seemed completely focused on the questions of the Dense officials based on the general myth of the alleged generalized social security fraud, instead of facts,” said Flick.
The “contempt for critical processes” and the “significant loss of experience” have been seriously worried, the programs will not continue to operate without interruption.
“That could result that benefits payments are not paid or delayed in payments,” he said.
Angela Digeronimo, a claims specialist and union leader in New Jersey who has been with Social Security for 28 years, said he believed he was witnessing a dismantling of the agency.
“It will affect the public in a very tangible way,” he said, speaking in his capacity as the Union official, and said that it takes about eight months for the applicants for the disability program to find out if they are eligible. “I hate saying this, but more and more people will die while waiting for a medical determination about their disability claim.”
Customer service concerns
Nicole Francis, a financial planner in New York, called the agency last month on behalf of a 100 -year client who wanted to change the bank in which her benefits were deposited. Mrs. Francis knew there would be a wait, but she didn’t expect it to be more than two hours.
Instead of retaining, she visited her client at home and helped her make the change with a new online account.
“Not all older Americans have a confidence representative and should have the telephone customer service option,” he said.
Last week, in an effort to combat fraud, the agency said it would no longer allow beneficiaries to change bank information by phone, only online or in person.
Musk has said that he wants to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the agency, but he and President Trump have continued to repeat false statements that millions of dead people are collecting benefits.
In fact, the Inspector General’s Social Security Office, which is responsible for discovering fraud and inefficiencies, published a report in 2023 that explains why these people do not have registered deaths, but do not collect checks.
“Both Musk and Trump are wrongly characterizing death data,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Budget Priorities Center and Policies, and former agency advisor. (Mr. Trump also fired the inspector general interim).
Last week, Mr. Musk, who called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, said programs like him are used to attract illegal immigrants. The agency has said that it collects more than $ 20 billion in payroll taxes annually of unauthorized workers, most of whom never collect benefits.
“Mixing these fraud accusations with these partisan attacks, I think, confuses the public,” said Jack Smalligan, a senior member of the Urban Institute and former Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The aggressive cost reduction of the administration has begun to worry to retirees as Eleanor H., who arrived at the anguished Social Security representative.
She said that she will not be able to survive in retirement without her social security control, but that she has worried so much about the actions of the administration she called to see how much she would receive if she requested early benefits, a few months before her full retirement age. Healthy retirees are often not claimed not to claim early because waiting for more blockages for a higher benefit.
The representative assured Eleanor that he thought that his retirement benefits would be safe.
“They will be busy coming for us,” he said.
Susan C. Beachy and Jack Begg Contributed research.
