A proposal to ban payments to people without Social Security numbers is circulating at the Social Security Administration, according to two employees. If implemented, the move could affect thousands of beneficiaries receiving retirement, disability and low-income benefits from the agency.
An SSA memo obtained by Government Executive notes that the agency currently can, at times, make someone a representative payee even if they don’t have an SSN. The payee, Romig noted, is not required to be eligible for benefits themselves.F
The new policy proposal would bar any payments to payees without SSNs, of which there are currently more than 170,000, according to the document. The Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
One large group that could be affected by the proposed change would be children receiving Supplemental Security Income or disability benefits whose parents don’t have an SSN. Others impacted could include widows and other survivors of dead Americans living overseas. …
The agency needs to confirm that it has the authority to make this change, the memo notes. If SSA moves forward, it would need to “work” the thousands of cases, contacting the payees to submit a SSN or change the payee altogether to someone that has a number.
That task could be arduous, as finding payees is already so difficult that at times the agency turns to institutional payees like child welfare agencies, said Romig. SSA staff also have to assess the suitability of payees. …
[Former Commissioner] Astrue, discussing the increased risk of a cybersecurity failure in light of DOGE operatives’ access to sensitive SSA databases, urged the Senate Finance Committee to move swiftly on the nomination of Frank Bisignano to lead the agency, noting “he can’t possibly be any worse” than Dudek, who was being investigated for improperly sharing information with DOGE when he was put in his current role.
“I don’t attribute being a traitor to these people—I am attributing to them being idiots and not knowing what they’re doing,” he said. …