'Chaos': Social Security agency 'engulfed in crisis' as Musk cuts leave retirees in 'turmoil'

25 March

Democratic attorney Martin O'Malley — former commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), ex-Maryland governor and former Baltimore mayor — has a grim warning about the wellbeing of Social Security. O'Malley fears that the Trump Administration's mass layoffs at the SSA, which are being carried out with the help of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are so severe that an "interruption of benefits" is likely.

Trump Administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, are being dismissive of the concerns of O'Malley and others. But according to Washington Post reporters Lisa Rein and Hannah Natanson, the SSA is already suffering major turmoil.

In an article published on March 25, Rein and Natanson report, "The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers' experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk. And the phones keep ringing. And ringing."

The SSA, Rein and Natanson note, is "engulfed in crisis" at a time when it is "responsible for delivering "$1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers."

According to the reporters, "The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants and legal immigrants who need Social Security cards with less access or shut out of the system altogether, according to those familiar with the problems."

One lawmaker who is sounding the alarm is Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).

The centrist senator told the Post, "What's going on is the destruction of the agency from the inside out, and it's accelerating. I have people approaching me all the time in their 70s and 80s, and they're beside themselves. They don’t know what's coming."

King said of the damage being inflicted on the SSA, "What they're doing now is unconscionable."

According to Rein and Natanson, "current and former officials" warn that Social Security "has been damaged" by "the rapid cuts and chaos of Trump's first two months in office." And they "fear it's part of a long-sought effort by conservatives to privatize all or part of the agency."

A high-ranking SSA official who recently took early retirement told the Post, "They're creating a fire to require them to come and put it out,” said one high-ranking official who took early retirement this month."

Read the Washington Post's full article at this link (subscription required).

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