Social Security Administration: Reports of phone service elimination ‘inaccurate’

The Social Security Administration (SSA) says reports that it will end telephone services are “inaccurate,” but system changes are being implemented to prevent fraud.

“SSA is increasing its protection for America’s seniors and other beneficiaries by eliminating the risk of fraud associated with changing bank account information by telephone,” the SSA said in a news release Thursday. “SSA’s current protocol of simply asking identifying questions by telephone is no longer enough to prevent fraud.”

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the federal government was planning to abandon its phone filing system that people use for retirement or disability claims as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“The shift would have directed elderly and disabled people to rely on the internet and in-person field offices to process their claims, curtailing a service that 73 million Americans have relied on for decades to access earned government benefits,” the Post reported, citing in its initial report an unnamed “person briefed on internal deliberations and records obtained by The Post.”

The SSA, in its release, defended a limited update to its system that will no longer allow people to change their banking information for direct deposits without proving their identities in person or through a two-factor authentication process online. According to the administration, nearly 40 percent of Social Security direct deposit fraud is associated with changes made by phone.

“SSA continuously investigates and analyzes potential threats to strengthen and secure our programs and protect people who receive benefits,” the agency said.

The official DOGE account on the social media platform X posted that the telephone change is aimed at “protecting our seniors by ensuring bank accounts aren’t changed with little to no authentication.”

DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting efforts, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, have stoked fears among some that the program relied upon by millions of Americans who are older or have disabilities could be at risk. Musk has repeatedly derided Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” that is plagued with fraud, including in a Fox Business interview Monday.

“The richest man on Earth repeated again a bevy of lies that entitlement programs, [which] tens of millions of people rely on, are riddled with fraud and abuse. That’s a pretext to slashing them. But it’s false,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Tuesday, referring to Musk.

“Elon Musk is shamelessly lying about Social Security, claiming it’s riddled with fraud, in order to justify taking benefits away from seniors and retirees,” he continued.

The billionaire Trump adviser has spread false information that millions of dead people, some born nearly 300 years ago, are receiving benefits. Trump even cited the debunked claims during his address to a joint session of Congress last week.

“We’re going to find out where that money is going, and it’s not going to be pretty, by slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft,” Trump said after repeating Musk’s misleading data about payments going to scores of people more than 100 years old.

The Associated Press reported that the false information was likely due to a misreading of the system SSA uses.