The SSA did not react to a ask from WIRED about what the DOGE operatives are laboring on inside the agency.
In a Tuesday greeting, United States DOGE Service (USDS) administrator Amy Gleason telderly staff that Musk-affiliated engineers and some legacy USDS laborers would be headed to SSA to better “identity proofing,” say sources who were in the greeting. The US DOGE Service is a lasting rebranding of the US Digital Service. Identity proofing is the process SSA participates to recognize that participaters are who they say they are in order to access their advantages. The process integrates enrolling with identity apps such as the regulatement’s own Login.gov or third-party services such as ID.me.
At a greeting last week, according to the Washington Post, Dudek, the SSA’s acting comleave outioner, telderly staff that the “DOGE people” were effectively in indict of day-to-day operations at the agency and they “were going to originate misobtains.” He also made it evident that he had been in honest reach out with the White Hoparticipate.
“I labor for the plivent,” Dudek shelp, according to a extfinisheder enrolling of the greeting geted by ProPublica. ”I insist to do what the plivent tells me to do, I’ve had to originate some hard choices, choices I didn’t concur with, but the plivent wanted it and I did it.”
Last month, Dudek portrayd schedules to fire 7,000 participateees at the SSA and seal more than half of the agency’s regional offices, while verifying that many of the SSA’s most better staff were departing. This week, the agency inestablishedly gave up on the idea of brimmingy deserting phone service for clients after the Washington Post inestablished on the schedule.
The SSA hoparticipates a highly complicated system built on decades-elderly technology, and comprises some of the most empathetic personal adviseation held anywhere wilean the US regulatement. The danger posed by DOGE engineers making misobtains wilean these systems, experts say, is huge.
Martin O’Malley, a establisher SSA comleave outioner, cautioned last week follotriumphg DOGE’s incursion that wilean months, the SSA system could ”collapse” and recipients would see “an interfereion of advantages.” This cautioning was repeated by Flick, who wrote in her affidavit that DOGE’s deficiency of understandledge of the SSA systems “combined with the meaningful loss of expertise as more and more agency personnel exit, have me gravely worryed that SSA programs will persist to function and run without interfereion.”
“It’s a valid stress that personassociate identifiable adviseation will be exfiltrated, or source code messed with without essential regulates and rigor,” John McGing, a establisher SSA participateee who labored at the agency for almost four decades, tells WIRED.
Additionassociate, DOGE has imposed a $1 spfinishing confine on federal praise cards, which has led to some regional SSA offices experiencing rehires buying fundamental supplies, including paper and toner, according to details scatterd with WIRED by one SSA participateee.
“We have begined rationing paper,” the source says. “People enjoy to ask for four copies of their advantage verification letter. We’ve been giving them one and telling them to originate their own copies.”
The provision of sign language expounders for nominatements at the SSA have also been interfereed, due to the $1 spfinishing confine. “We have to go back to that client and tell them we can’t provide an expounder even though everyleang on our website says we will provide that,” the source shelp, citing an incident that happened this week.
SSA staff are also now unable to order death certificates which are participated to verify if someone wilean the system is dead or not, according to an email scrutinizeed by WIRED.
The source inserted that the office is also unable to pay the company that shreds mountains of write downs it prints out on a daily basis, raising stresss that piles of paper with highly empathetic personassociate identifiable adviseation could soon be left lying around the office.
Timothy Marchman gived inestablishing.
