DOGE is flirting with the ‘third rail' of American politics — errors could delay or disrupt benefits, a former top Social Security official says

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16-03-2025

The Social Security Administration is laying off 12% of its workforce, and the loss of expertise, especially on key systems, could put benefits at risk as DOGE tries to look for fraud, according to a former staffer at the agency.
Historically, toying with Social Security benefits has been long seen as a political 'third rail,' meaning whoever touches it will get zapped.
The White House said in a press release it won't cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits, but that doesn't rule out the chances of a mistake.
Amid the Department of Government Efficiency's cost-cutting endeavor within federal agencies in recent weeks, a former top Social Security Administration staffer is worried about benefit interruptions as the agency loses expertise while DOGE looks for fraud in its systems.
In February, the SSA released a statement announcing plans to lay off roughly 12% of its 57,000 employees through voluntary resignation and a reduction-in-force plan. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and world's richest man Elon Musk, the figurehead for DOGE, have claimed fraud on a massive scale, though experts have said it's limited.
Still, DOGE is looking for evidence and seeks full access to the SSA's Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), which houses information about anyone with a Social Security number, including financial and banking information, according to a declaration filed in a lawsuit last week by former senior official Tiffany Flick.
She said that SSA typically doesn't provide full access to all data systems—even to the most skilled and highly trained experts—to protect against inadvertent or unauthorized changes to the system.
Flick said DOGE officials lacked interest in understanding SSA's systems and programs, while disregarding critical processes like providing the "least privileged" access on a need-to-know basis.
'That combined with a significant loss of expertise as more and more agency personnel leave, have me seriously concerned that SSA programs will continue to function and operate without disruption,' she said.
Flick said that inadvertent error poses the risk of 'benefits payments not being paid out or delays in payments.'
The SSA information technology programs are made up of complex systems that use old programming languages that require specialized knowledge, she warned, adding that they are easily broken if long-standing procedures aren't followed.
'I understand that DOGE associates have been seeking access to the 'source code' to SSA systems,' Flick wrote. 'If granted, I am not confident that such associates have the requisite understanding of SSA to avoid critical errors that could upend SSA systems.'
In addition to her concerns regarding benefits, Flick is not convinced DOGE has the proper experience to prevent sensitive information from getting into the hands of bad actors.
'In such a chaotic environment, the risk of data leaking into the wrong hands is significant,' she said.
Andrew Biggs, an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow, told Axios the agency could increase productivity and efficiency, but he doubts DOGE's ability to do so due to its lack of experience.
'I just find it hard to accept that you can go in there having been there just a few weeks, and do these far-reaching changes having fully thought out the consequences of them,' he said.
Biggs says while checks are automated and won't be disrupted, possible disruptions to customer service bring concerns regarding budget cuts.
'It's kind of a foot race between whether they can improve service before these cuts are impacting service,' Biggs said.
The White House, the U.S. DOGE Service, and the SSA did not respond to Fortune's request for comment.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com