For A Different Viewpoint

     If you’ve been wanting a news article to sort of reassure you about the current status of Social Security the Deseret News from deeply Republican Utah has you covered.

What Are You Supposed To Do?

      A piece in the Los Angeles Times lays out the situation. Social Security can’t answer its phones. They won’t see you if you show up at the office. Their online systems are a shambles. What are you supposed to do?

“I’ve Called For Days”; “We Came From A Long Ways Away” ; “I Didn’t Know He Was Going To Pull This”

      From the New York Times:

The line started forming outside the Social Security office in suburban Glendale, Ariz., not long after sunrise, dozens of retirees and people with disabilities, shuffling papers, some leaning on walkers, all anxious to know whether President Trump’s government overhaul had put their safety nets at risk.

When 9 a.m. came, an employee emerged from the building with fliers asking the crowd to come back — once they had scheduled an appointment.

“I’ve called for days!” one woman yelled.

“We came from a long ways away,” said another. Still another let everyone know they had been handed a load of bunk, though she used a more colorful term. …

Those difficulties come as a deadline looms, imposed under the influence of Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency as the billionaire presidential adviser crusades against what he imagines to be legions of beneficiaries who do not qualify for Social Security benefits. On April 14, the agency plans to largely phase out phone services for people filing for retirement and survivor benefits or changing their direct deposit information, forcing them to file online or come into the office, part of the administration’s broader effort to combat fraud that it has done little to prove exists.

The Social Security Administration could end up exempting some from the edict, but as April 14 approaches, calls to the agency have risen by 30 percent compared with last year, and more callers are getting busy signals or being disconnected, according to data published by Social Security. … 

“I didn’t know he was going to pull this,” said Teresa Boswell, whose vote for Mr. Trump in November helped flip Arizona, but who found herself fuming outside the Social Security office in Glendale last week, unable to sign up for $1,200 in monthly benefits after she retired from her job processing legal papers. “This is a joke.” … 

The White House has grown worried enough about the political fallout from the long lines and wait times that White House officials are pressuring Social Security administrators to reduce the information they put online that could draw attention to problems, according to a person briefed on the discussions. …

Backing Away A Bit From Chaos

      Twitter, sorry, X posts from Social Security:

• Beginning on April 14, #SocialSecurity will perform an anti-fraud check on all claims filed over the telephone and flag claims that have fraud risk indicators.
• Individuals who are not flagged will be able to complete their claim without any in-person requirements.
• We will continue to conduct 100 percent ID proofing for all in-person claims. 4.5 million telephone claims a year and 70K may be flagged. Telephone remains a viable option to the public.

Two Votes Short

      From Newsweek

Two Republican Senators voted against the GOP and President Donald Trump last week in favor of an amendment that would have reversed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts at the Social Security Administration (SSA). The vote took place late Friday night as the Senate voted on Trump's multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts framework. …  

 On Friday, Republican Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, both from Alaska, voted in favor of an amendment that sought to reverse "cuts to the Social Security Administration, which may include cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency or any other cuts to seniors' services." It failed to pass in a 50-49 vote. …

Field Office “Consolidations” Coming

      From Government Executive:

A draft plan for service delivery at the Social Security Administration includes “field office consolidation” as a goal for next year — even as the agency maintains publicly that it isn’t closing field offices.

SSA posted Monday on X that it “is NOT permanently closing field offices. Only underutilized hearing office space has been closed and without permanently closing field offices.” But a plan circulating within the agency includes a goal to “further reduce footprint” in 2026 and beyond. 

The scope of the envisioned "consolidations" is unclear, though the document singles out field offices as on the chopping block next year. …

At the same time the agency is contemplating plans to shutter offices, it also is moving ahead with new identity proofing requirements expected to push more people to those offices. SSA is ending phone service for many of its benefits applications, as well as those looking to make changes to their direct deposit information, leaving them with online or in-person avenues to do so.

Some regional leaders that oversee field offices still haven’t gotten guidance on implementing the changes, which are scheduled to take place next week, according to one current employee.  …

SSA Websites Crashing Under Added Loads

      From Lisa Rein at the Washington Post:

Retirees and disabled people are facing chronic website outages and other access problems as they attempt log in to their online Social Security accounts, even as they are being directed to do more of their business with the agency online.
The website has crashed repeatedly in recent weeks, with outages lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to almost a day, according to six current and former officials with knowledge of the issues. Even when the site is back online, many customers have not been able to sign in to their accounts — or have logged in only to find information missing. For others, access to the system has been slow, requiring repeated tries to get in.
The problems come as the Trump administration’s cost-cutting team, led by Elon Musk, has imposed a downsizing that’s led to 7,000 job cuts and is preparing to push out thousands more employees at an agency that serves 73 million Americans. The new demands from Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service include a 50 percent cut to the technology division responsible for the website and other electronic access.

 

Many of the network outages appear to be caused by an expanded fraud check system imposed by the DOGE team, current and former officials said. The technology staff did not test the new software against a high volume of users to see if the servers could handle the rush, these officials said.

“Complete, Utter Chaos”

      From The Guardian:

Office closures, staffing and service cuts, and policy changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA) have caused “complete, utter chaos” and are threatening to send the agency into a “death spiral”, according to workers at the agency. …

“They have these ‘concepts of plans’ that they’re hoping are sticking but in reality, are really hurting American people,” said a longtime SSA employee and military veteran who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “No one knows what’s going on. They’re just coming up with ideas at the top of their head.”  …

“It’s just been a lot of craziness, a lot of foolishness. Until they get rid of Doge and the person in office right now, and the Republicans actually get a backbone and stand up for something for once in their lives, things are just going to be complete chaos. That’s really the best word to describe SSA right now, just complete, utter chaos,” the worker added. “They couldn’t understand the coding, so everything they said SSA was doing illegally, they weren’t. Common sense is something they lack. They don’t know what they’re doing.” …