An insider at the Social Security Administration is warning that chaos set off by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is going to hurt Americans' ability to access their earned benefits in the future.
In an interview with Axios, the SSA employee said that the new restrictions that Musk is putting in place to supposedly root out fraud will result in beneficiaries being unable to get the benefits they need.
"There's gonna be a slowdown, a complete slowdown, in people getting any of the services they need," the SSA employee said. "People who actually are qualified for disability benefits will not get them in any kind of timely manner. It feels like we don't serve the public anymore."
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A former employee at the U.S. Digital Service tells Axios that Musk's efforts to force beneficiaries to show up in person to verify their identities even as he closes Social Security Administration field offices across the country could result in totally needless suffering and even death.
"Preventing every possible case of fraud often places an undue burden on legitimate users trying to access what they need," the employee said. "The trade-off isn't just efficiency, it's life or death... Many rely on these benefits for food, shelter and health care. If the system is too strict and prevents legitimate access, people can literally die."
Musk has stirred controversy in recent weeks by referring to Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" and falsely claiming that the system is overrun with fraud.