From SCOTUSblog:
BREAKING: The Supreme Court grants DOGE affiliates access to Social Security Administration records. Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson would deny the request.
From a Washington Post article titled Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE fired too many people:
… At the Social Security Administration’s call center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, IT workers were told by managers in mid-April that they needed to request a transfer or face possible firing, said Barri Sue Bryant, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2809. Nearly all of the 40-plus workers in that office did so, sending their laptops and spare equipment to the agency’s Baltimore headquarters and awaiting a new assignment while the union attempted to explain to leadership how essential these employees were, Bryant said.
“We are critically understaffed in all of our departments,” Bryant wrote in an email to leadership. “Having systems and employees down is not contributing to the goals of this agency.” But management would soon find out on their own.
A specialized scanner that can quickly input forms and scan barcodes broke down and was unusable for a day. A customer service representative who was supposed to answer the 800 number couldn’t take calls for three days while her computer was in disrepair. “It really sent everyone for a loop,” Bryant said.
After three days, the agency told the union the decision had been reversed. The employees got back their equipment and resumed their normal jobs in Wilkes-Barre.
Asked about the IT workers, Social Security provided an emailed statement from an unnamed official, whom it declined to identify. The statement did not address the reassignments but criticized “the fake news media, specifically the Washington Post” for “pushing a false narrative about Social Security. The truth is that President Trump is protecting and strengthening Social Security just like he promised.” …
From The Guardian:
Millions of legal immigrants may be left unable to work after the US Social Security Administration quietly instituted a rule change to stop automatically issuing them social security numbers.
The Enumeration Beyond Entry program is an agreement between the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, where US Citizenship and Immigration Services would provide social security with information from applicants for work authorization or naturalization.
The program began in 2017 under the first Trump administration.
Without any public notice, on 19 March, the program was halted, affecting millions of immigrants every year and burdening Social Security Administration offices, as those applicants will now have to visit a Social Security Administration office and apply separately to receive a social security number. …
The costs of issuing a social security number through this program in the same year, according to a Social Security Administration memo, was $8 per issuance, compared with $55.80 in a field office. …
Can we now get Musk's kiddie corps of DOGE computer "experts" out of Social Security? Like being escorted out by security today? With a subsequent investigation to see whether they did anything illegal?
From Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Social Security Administration (SSA) is warning the public about a growing scam involving fraudulent remote job offers falsely claiming to be associated with SSA or other government agencies.
Scammers are posing as hiring personnel or recruiters and offering fictitious remotepositions — such as “administrative assistant,” “claims processor,” or “virtual benefits coordinator.” These scammers may use fake SSA email addresses, official-looking documents, or spoofed phone numbers.
Scammers may ask for personal information such as Social Security numbers, banking details, or copies of government-issued IDs. Victims may be told to pay for training materials or computer equipment as a condition of employment. …
— President Donald Trump, in a speech to Congress, March 4
This is an example of how, even after falsehoods are exposed, the spin machine keeps working.
By the time Trump delivered his speech to Congress falsely saying that millions of people above the age of 120 were getting Social Security payments, The Washington Post on Feb. 19 had already published a detailed article that documented how claims of such payments — originally circulated by billionaire Elon Musk, then head of the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service — were wrong. (We never rated them, but they’re worthy of Four Pinocchios.) ...
Now, look at the announcement that DOGE made on May 23 in a social media post:
“After 11 weeks, Social Security has finished this major cleanup initiative: ~12.3M individuals aged 120+ have now been marked as deceased.”
The post was carefully worded. It did not claim that 12 million people had received improper payments. Instead, it said that these people had been marked as deceased. ...
[L]ook at how supporters of Trump greeted the news. Many said — or suggested — that Trump’s original false claim was confirmed.
From USA Today:
… Social Security Administration employees at processing centers generally prioritize new claims and appeals each day. In late May, employees at many of the nation's eight processing centers were told to put Social Security Fairness Act payments [to address WEP and GPO cases] at the top of their work list and were offered weekend overtime to get it done. …
A half-dozen employees at several of the nation's Social Security processing centers said they were told that the new commissioner wants all of the Social Security Fairness Act claims resolved by July 1, and that they also need to address a backlog of claims that has built up. …
Employees who received the order said they were told they cannot help with non-priority issues like overpayment reconsideration, updating direct deposit information, checking on monthly payment rates, and Medicare billing related issues. …
The East Coast employee said he’s having to tell caller after caller that he cannot address their Social Security-related need for the next month, which results in both him and his manager being yelled at all day. …
From the Washington Post:
... The administration’s ongoing shake-ups of the workforce, from buyout offers to firings to sweeping reorganizations, are also undermining efficiency.
At the Social Security Administration, for example, Trump officials and DOGE pushed thousands of central-office workers to take lower-level positions answering phones in field offices, threatening to fire whoever did not make the jump, according to emails reviewed by The Post and interviews with a half dozen agency employees.
Chaos has ensued across field offices in the weeks since the reassignments took effect, staffers said. Claims processing has bogged down as regular field office staff — already overburdened because of widespread resignations and retirements — are pulled off their normal duties to train incoming administrators and analysts.
But the backlog means the trainings are being shortened and rushed through, employees said, so inexperienced, reassigned staffers start work unprepared. That leads to more mistakes, more requests for help and more backed-up claims — and more time wasted all around.
To sum it up, “you now have half the staff with very little knowledge of how to do the work,” one relocated staffer said. “And the other half of staff overwhelmed with work and unable to really train or mentor these new folks.”
Asked about the reassignments, Social Security provided an emailed statement from an unnamed official, whom it declined to identify. The statement said DOGE’s work at Social Security had charted a new, better course for the agency.
“The voluntary reassignment of approximately 2,000 employees to direct service positions has not caused disruptions at the agency,” the statement read. “As these employees complete their training and become fully proficient in their new positions, they will further accelerate the progress the agency is making.” ...
