The Social Security Administration on Wednesday abruptly backed off planned cuts to phone services for disabled and some elderly Americans applying for benefits amid an uproar from advocates.
The originally proposed changes — scheduled to take effect Monday but now delayed to April 14 — would have directed all people filing claims to first verify their identity online or in person, removing a phone option in place for years. Advocates said the shift would make it impossible for many disabled and elderly people with limited mobility or computer skills to apply.
Now, those applying for Medicare, disability benefits and supplemental income help can continue to file claims and authenticate their identity by phone, according to a news release the agency issued late Wednesday. However, others filing for retirement or survivor benefits — or requesting direct deposit for their checks — will still be bound by rules announced by the agency earlier this month: These transactions require online or in-person identity verification except in rare situations, such as when someone is terminally ill.
The announcement marked the end of a volatile 24 hours for acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek. He met with advocates for blind Americans on Tuesday, then told his senior staff Wednesday morning that he was not prepared to implement any limits on phone service right now, before finally announcing a mixed approach.
“We have listened to our customers, Congress, advocates, and others, and we are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country’s most vulnerable populations,” Dudek said in Wednesday’s release.
The restrictions on direct deposit transactions will take effect Monday.
Dudek — directed by a team of Elon Musk-led software engineers that has taken an outsize role at Social Security headquarters — has raced to downsize and root out alleged fraud at the agency that administers retirement, survivor and disability benefits to 73 million Americans and historically has been shown to have a relatively low number of fraud cases. The rapid-fire moves have sent Social Security operations into crisis as the system struggles with worsening wait times for phone and in-person services, website crashes and other serious customer service problems.
The changes announced Wednesday did not address the wave of scammers that has inundated retirees since the Trump administration took office.
“Ending phone service and requiring in-person office visits would have a very serious impact on older Americans everywhere,” AARP’s chief advocacy and engagement officer, Nancy LeaMond, said in a statement Wednesday. “Our members nationwide have told us this change would require hundreds of miles and hours of travel merely to fill out paperwork. Merely delaying the implementation of this change is not enough.”
Social Security leaders had said the restrictions on identity verification will safeguard the system against fraudulent activity — a claim many experts said is exaggerated since retirees and disabled people do not generally try to game the system at the front end.
The identification mandate for disability benefits faced possible legal action from advocates, who told Dudek that the policies would violate disabled people’s rights to government services.
Dudek has backtracked on several other initiatives during his six-week tenure, including reneging on a requirement that Maine residents apply in person for Social Security numbers for their newborns and to report deaths — a process normally done electronically by funeral homes. Last week, the White House ordered Dudek to back down on a threat to shut down agency operations after a federal judge ordered him to deny access to Musk’s team. And a plan to eliminate the ability to file any claims by phone was circulated but not adopted.
Social Security leaders also told staff in some departments Wednesday that the rollout of the verification program was delayed in part because the technological infrastructure needed to support it was not ready, according to an employee briefed on the matter, who, like other staffers, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. That is largely because the teams that would have worked on developing the online part of the system have been decimated by the Musk-led efforts to shrink Social Security staffing, the employee said.
“There is not enough people, not enough contractors,” the employee said. “People have left, taken early retirement. The expertise is just not there to get it done anymore.”
The identity changes for retirees will add more burdens on an already thin field staff that had yet to be trained on how to carry out the rules. Front-line employees are struggling to keep up with a surge in phone calls and walk-in visits as the poorly communicated changes have caused turmoil.
Since the original identification verification policy was announced, scammers have jumped at the opportunity to try to steal elderly Americans’ financial information, according to interviews with a half-dozen agency staffers, recipients and records obtained by The Washington Post.
Some field office staff exchanged emails last week warning that seniors were receiving emails from people posing as Social Security representatives “saying they need to respond to … verify their identity to keep receiving benefits,” according to messages obtained by The Post.
One scam message sent March 24 and obtained by The Post came from an email account named “Social Security Administrator.” It asked the recipient to click a link to download a “Social Security Statement” to “ensure the accuracy of your earnings record.” The email was well-formatted and looked official. The only way to tell it was fake was to notice that the sender’s email address did not end in “ssa.gov,” the official government web address for Social Security.
At a meeting Monday with about 50 advocates for disabled and retired people, Delma Cardona, Social Security’s assistant deputy commissioner of operations, told the group that “fraudsters are trying to take advantage of this confusion” over the proposed identity policy. She asked for help “spreading the word” to their members to not answer suspicious text messages, according to two people in attendance. The advocates reiterated their concerns that the policy was unnecessary and being rolled out too quickly.
“We’re hearing from people who think this is already the policy, and they’re terrified and confused,” said Kate Lang, director of federal income security at Justice in Aging, a national nonprofit group that advocates for low-income older Americans. “They think someone from SSA is contacting them. … The agency’s own actions are setting people up to be scammed.”
Advocates argue that the agency’s identity verification efforts are already strong, including a multistage phone interview process.
An email went to staff in some regional and field offices Monday and Tuesday, outlining how employees were supposed to prepare for the identification program’s swift-approaching debut. The email, a copy of which was reviewed by The Post, described the changes as meant to “reduce the risk of identity fraud and safeguard payments.”
The email said “front line” staff in field offices would begin receiving mandatory training on how to handle the new system as early as Wednesday, although one employee in an Indiana field office said that no further communications had gone out about the promised training and that no actual trainings had taken place.
The email asked employees to “remain vigilant against the various tactics employed by fraudsters” and listed a variety of “verbal cues” staffers should watch for to detect suspicious activity, including a caller who “has difficulty answering questions” or repeatedly says, “Sorry, I cannot hear you.”
The email also acknowledged that the proposed alterations to service might be disruptive.
“While these measures are designed to reduce fraud and improper payments, they may lead to increased foot traffic in field offices and longer wait times for services,” the email stated.
