The Washington Post has a nice article about the fruitless DOGE efforts to find fraud at Social Security. It discusses a special recent effort to contact recipients over 100. It says there were only 1,294 of them. That number sounds far too low to me.
Mar 24, 2025
Astrue On NPR
Former Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue appeared on NPR this morning to talk about the struggles that the agency faces at the moment. He said “They don’t understand” a lot. By the way, Astrue had to go to his local Security Security field office recently.
Mar 23, 2025
Hear, Hear. Seriously, Listen To This
Take a listen to this 31 minute podcast interview with Laura Haltzel, a former Associate Conmissioner at Social Security who left the agency over the horrible changes brought about by the Trump Administration. Her testimony about the horrible pressures placed on agency employees is especially striking.
Haltzel should be lauded for her bravery in speaking out. The Trump Administration has dealt with its critics in extraordinary brutal ways.
Mar 22, 2025
Mar 21, 2025
“Fraudsters”?
Trump’s Commerce Secretary says that if Social Security payments don’t get paid that the ones who would complain the most are “fraudsters.”
Mar 20, 2025
Dudek Threatens To Shut Down Agency Over Court Ruling
From Bloomberg:
The Trump administration is threatening to all but shut down the Social Security Administration in response to a judge’s ruling blocking activities by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — an action that could delay payments to millions of beneficiaries caught in the middle of the legal battle.
Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek said the temporary restraining order issued Thursday is so broad in blocking access to data by “DOGE affiliates” that it could apply to any Social Security employee.
“My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,” Dudek said. “As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems.” …
“In an 134-page decision, a radical leftist-judge ordered Social Security Administration employees not to implement the President’s government-efficiency agenda,” said White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. “This is yet another activist judge abusing the judicial system to try and sabotage the President’s attempts to rid the government of waste, fraud, and abuse.” …
Treasury Offset Resumes
Social Security Administration Resumes Treasury Offset Program Collections After COVID-19 Suspension
The Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced the immediate resumption of debt collection activities through the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) for debts accrued prior to March 2020. This decision comes after a suspension of collections due to the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Treasury Offset Program, administered by the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service, is a centralized program designed to collect delinquent debts owed to federal and state agencies by intercepting Federal and state payments. Since 1992, SSA has referred delinquent Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) debts to TOP as mandated by law.
Prior to the suspension in March 2020, SSA had successfully collected almost $2 billion in previously unrecoverable delinquent debt through TOP. The program is essential for maintaining the integrity of the OASDI and SSI programs.
“Resuming collections through the Treasury Offset Program is a critical step in our commitment to being good stewards of taxpayer funds and ensuring the integrity of our programs,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We are dedicated to recovering overpayments while providing individuals with the necessary information and options to address their debts.”
The Department of Treasury has begun collecting debts SSA referred to Treasury before March 2020, impacting an estimated 280,000 individuals with a collective debt balance of $2.7 billion.
TRO Prevents DOGE Access To Confidential Social Security Records
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland had granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in a lawsuit filed by a labor union concerning DOGE access to records on Social Security claimants. This access is now blocked.
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