The Social Security Administration is being destroyed from within due to the machinations of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) according to staffers who are speaking out.
In interviews with The Guardian, employees of the agency that tends to care and support of elderly Americans and administers survivor benefits are raising red flags at what one employee called "complete chaos" brought about by the intruding DOGE employees.
According to The Guardian's Michael Sainato, "Office closures, staffing and service cuts, and policy changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA) have caused 'complete, utter chaos' and are threatening to send the agency into a 'death spiral.'"
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Noting that the agency administers almost $1.6 trillion delivered to 69 million Americans annually, the report adds that employees are stunned by the destruction being wrought with no accountability.
According to one employee who asked to remain anonymous, "They have these ‘concepts of plans’ that they’re hoping are sticking but in reality, are really hurting American people. No one knows what’s going on. They’re just coming up with ideas at the top of their head.”
Another staffer was more pointed in their criticism.
“It’s just been a lot of craziness, a lot of foolishness. Until they get rid of Doge and the person in office right now, and the Republicans actually get a backbone and stand up for something for once in their lives, things are just going to be complete chaos. That’s really the best word to describe SSA right now, just complete, utter chaos,” they said. “They couldn’t understand the coding, so everything they said SSA was doing illegally, they weren’t. Common sense is something they lack. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
The report notes that, as the result of DOGE meddling, the website for the agency has crashed multiple times leaving recipients of benefits in the dark and hoping to get someone on the phone.
According to Rich Couture, of the American Federation of Government Employees’ Social Security Administration general committee, the damage is far from done when it comes to firing staffers.
"It has never been explained with any degree of clarity how they came up with that figure. What’s being served by that by a loss of 7,000 jobs? How does any of that supposedly makes this operation more efficient? How does it improves service? How does it improves productivity? Our position is that losing 7,000 people doesn’t do any of those things,” he asked before adding, "I don’t think they’re going to stop at 7,000 people lost. If they lose 10,000 or 12,000, they’re running up their high score. They’re able to brag about it.”
