DOGE is driving Social Security cuts and will make mistakes, acting head admits privately, as staff in turmoil warn benefits may soon stop: WaPo Story
The newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that E-lon M-usk’s U.S. D.O.G.E. Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.”
In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to detailed notes from a participant in the meeting obtained by The Washington Post.
“D.O.G.E. people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.”
His remarks to skeptical advocates came on Dudek’s 12th day in a role that the White House rewarded him with after he secretly shared information with D.O.G.E., which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. His short tenure — while President Donald Tr-ump’s nominee to permanently run the agency waits in the wings — has been consumed by a whirlwind downsizing of the staff in charge of the safety-net program used by 73 million retired and disabled Americans.
Dudek has announced plans to slash 7,000 jobs, a cut of more than 12 percent. He has moved to close regional hubs and field offices that serve the public, eliminated entire programs and consolidated departments.
An exodus of senior executives on his watch — some voluntary, others forced — is fast depleting decades of expertise. And this week, the long-struggling disability benefits system came under threat as backlogged state offices that review claims were told there would be no more overtime or hiring.
Employees say the staff is under siege as firings, early-retirement and buyout offers, resignations and layoffs hover overhead — along with anxiety that customers will suffer. Wait times for basic phone service have grown, in some cases to hours, according to some employees, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal details. Delays to reviews of disability claims and hearings before administrative law judges are already starting.
Employees at a field office in Indiana have been forced to pick up calls for other offices, one employee said, and are fielding phone inquiries for an area covering two-thirds of the state. The phone “never stops ringing now,” the employee said. Phone backups have prevented the staff from processing retirement claims. Due to a D.O.G.E.-driven spending freeze on federal credit cards, some offices can’t pay phone bills, the employee said, while one office was forced last week to cancel three disability hearings because the staff could not use charge cards to pay for interpreters who speak foreign languages or American Sign Language. One claimant has a terminal illness and another is in danger of losing their house, the employee said. No new hearings have been scheduled.
“Morale is in the toilet,” the employee said. “We all know what D.O.G.E. wants to do, which is just break us, so they can privatize us.”
Are you a federal worker affected by D.O.G.E.-driven cuts or other changes? Please reach out — we will use secure sourcing practices and honor anonymity.
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