And y’all, *boy* is it failing. What a huge mistake, or rather, series of mistakes, they have made, and we’re lucky because we are publicly finding out about them. This article was found through Yahoo News, and is from The Washington Post:
The U.S. DOGE Service arrived at the Social Security Administration this year, determined to slash staff and root out what it claimed was widespread fraud and wasteful spending – a mission Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team has pursued across the government.
But as of this week, many of the major changes DOGE pushed at Social Security have been abandoned or are being reversed after proving ineffective, while others are yielding unintended consequences and badly damaging customer service and satisfaction. The problems come as the agency struggles to cope with a record surge of hundreds of thousands of retirement claims in recent months.
And that’s not all! How about not being able to get any supplies because DOGE locked the company credit cards at $1? The folks in the offices are buying supplies out of their own money, or getting together and chipping in for something bigger, like a refrigerator. Let’s have some more quotes (I feel really bad for the people in SS, but I’m so gleeful about DOGE’s mess!)
DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency but is not a Cabinet-level agency, had to cancel a plan to cut phone service for retirement and disability claims after drawing outrage from lawmakers, seniors and advocates. Staff reductions and reassignments led by DOGE are slowing the pace of claims processing as field offices lose longtime staff and gain a smaller number of inexperienced replacements. DOGE-driven changes to the agency’s website are causing crashes almost every day, and phone customers complain about dropped calls and long wait times.
Ha. Ha. They screwed up ‘bigly’. This is only what we know about Social Security. How badly have they messed up organizations that we *don’t* know about? This is such a train wreck that we *know* others are just as bad OR WORSE, right? “We” knew from the get-go that once they started and we heard a little bit about the background of the people out there (Hackers ‘R’ Us), and when they demanded top level access but hadn’t gone through to process to get it (hello background check) that this whole thing was going to be a gigantic problem. And notice that Elon Muskrat has dropped from view. Yuh-huh. And as I like to say, but wait! There’s more! (Still from The Washington Post)
And on Friday, Social Security leaders told employees that the agency was ending a security check, developed at DOGE’s request, that was meant to root out allegedly fraudulent claims filed over the phone, according to three employees familiar with the situation and an email obtained by The Washington Post. But the measure, which involved placing a three-day hold on all phone claims as other staffers checked into the caller’s background, had only identified a couple of potential fraud cases while causing significant delays in claims processing, two employees said.
Kathleen Romig, a former Social Security official who is now at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said there were already safeguards in place to detect fraud through the agency’s phone service. DOGE’s efforts have only delayed claims processing and, like most of the team’s attempts to reshape Social Security, placed serious stress on the agency, she said.
“So much of this is self-inflicted wounds,” Romig said.
Gee, ya think? Everything is a shambles. The division has been impeded left, right, and center. Here’s something a little different, from the same article, and then we’ll close. They have decided to use AI on the phones. One more time, from The Washington Post:
Jennifer Burdick, a Philadelphia-based attorney representing clients seeking disability benefits, said that in the past week, a new phone line operated by an artificial intelligence system has complicated her efforts to get help for her clients. In one case, she and her paralegal had to call repeatedly before they were connected with a human to discuss a client who had never got their disability check last month.
“Many times when you say ‘agent’ it won’t put you through to the hold line, it’ll act like it didn’t hear what you said,” Burdick said. “This is causing some confusion. People are getting frustrated and trying to tell it what they mean, and instead of that being effective at all, it’s been spitting out weird Social Security knowledge.”
When a Post reporter called the phone line Friday afternoon, it took eight attempts to get transferred to an agent. The AI bot asked the reporter several times to end the call and gave unrelated information about a cost-of-living adjustment, Medicare Part B’s premium, and benefits available to people after the retirement age.
Oh, mercy. And remember, a number of field offices have been closed, so it’s an all-day chore to get to the next closest one. How many people have they fired? How many people are still terrified about losing their jobs? This should never have been changed. Staff are trained to pick up signs of a fraudulent application. Staff need office supplies and phone service. Callers need to connect with a real person on the first try. Staff need DOGE to get the hell out of there and let them do their jobs. Remember, that’s just *one* division. They’ve been very quiet on other fronts. DOGE just needs to go away. Thanks for sticking with me!
*****And now, please read ******
Zoomers, we are always in need of donations. It’s been an especially rough month, and my own health has not been great these past few weeks, which just adds to the frustration. Anything you can spare will be immensely appreciated. And thank you to all who have donated generously already. Ursula
