Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) backed off a plan to scrap telephone services for millions of Americans filing claims with the Social Security Administration, just hours after The Washington Post revealed the sweeping changes.
In a tense Tuesday meeting, DOGE staff grilled SSA officials about phone fraud and proposed shifting all claims processing to online channels and in-person offices, according to The Post.
SSA employees floated possible solutions, but DOGE wasn’t “interested in anything else but defending the decision that they had already made,” a source familiar told the paper.
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The news was met with outrage on Musk’s social media platform X.
“Going after 90-year-old grandmas who can’t drive and don’t have a computer? That’s just low,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said.
“Gramma and Grampa are already waiting too long for answers about their Social Security,” Sen. Ed Markey wrote. “Now, Elon Musk and DOGE want to close field offices and take away their option to use the phone. This is outrageous.”
The Post reported on DOGE’s proposal to slash SSA’s telephone services on Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, the agency said in a statement that media reports were “inaccurate.”
DOGE confirmed on X, however, that the administration would still push forward with one part of its proposal: Customers will no longer be allowed to change their direct deposit routing number and other bank information by phone.
“Approximately 40 percent of Social Security direct deposit fraud is associated with fraudsters calling SSA on the phone and changing the direct deposit bank account from the correct one to a fraudulent one,” the DOGE team wrote.
Beginning March 29, SSA customers can only change their direct deposit bank account information through online platforms and an in-person visit to a Service Center.
“This is identical to the fraud protections at almost all major banks, where deposit changes are made either online or in person,” DOGE said. “All other SSA phone services remain unchanged.”
Although experts and career employees at SSA agreed that online and phone-based identity fraud does occur, it only amounts to a tiny fraction of the benefit program’s cost and is not a big enough issue to merit drastic change, according to The Post.
Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, also highlighted that “a huge number” of Americans do not have access to computers.
“They have a smartphone or they have low levels of education or English proficiency. You’re talking about people with disabilities. The whole idea of serving the people is to give people a choice.” Altman told The Post.
Acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek reportedly said in a meeting last week with senior staff, attorneys, and advocates for the disabled and elderly that DOGE staff “will make mistakes, but we have to let them in to see what is going on at SSA.”
In a recording from that meeting obtained by ProPublica, Dudek said he had received extensive input on changes to SSA not just from “the DOGE kids” but also from the White House itself.
“I work for the president. I need to do what the president tells me to do,” Dudek said. “I’ve had to make some tough choices, choices I didn’t agree with, but the president wanted it and I did it.”
SSA earlier announced that it was planning to slash its “bloated” workforce from about 57,000 staff to 50,000.
The White House was also forced to go into damage control mode on Tuesday after DOGE chief Musk suggested that he wanted to “eliminate” Social Security and Medicaid.
