If you need to claim benefits or change your Direct Deposit information, you will have to PROVE your identity
You can't do it by phone anymore. If you can't do it online, you will have to go in person to a Social Security office. Except there's a huge Catch-22
Julia Conley for Common Dreams
Key point: By March 31, Social Security will enforce the following new policy on ALL recipients:
Over the next two weeks, SSA will carefully transition to stronger identity proofing procedures for both benefit claims and direct deposit changes. Individuals seeking these services who cannot use their personal my Social Security account, which requires online identity proofing, will then need to visit a local Social Security office to prove their identity in person.
The Catch-22: President Musk is closing hundreds of Social Security offices and laying off thousands of Social Security staff. No one knows how badly this will affect people who will now need a face-to-face appointment.
What to do: If you can do your Social Security business on-line, great. If you can't contact your member of Congress for help.
COMMENTARY: The Trump administration aims to "ultimately collapse the system" that allows tens of millions of Americans to collect their earned Social Security benefits each month, said one leading advocate for the system Wednesday after officials announced a major change to the Social Security Administration.
Trump-appointed Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek claimed the agency needs to "identity-proof"
Social Security beneficiaries as he told reporters that millions of people will
now be required to verify their identities using an online system—and will have
to provide documentation at local field offices if they're unable to use the
SSA website's verification system.
The change is set to take effect March 31 and comes as
President Donald
Trump and Elon
Musk, his billionaire ally whom he named to lead the so-called Department
of Government Efficiency( DOGE) with the aim of slashing
government jobs and spending, have baselessly claimed that the Social Security
system is riddled with fraud and sends benefits to millions of deceased Americans and to undocumented immigrants.
A source at the SSA told Judd
Legum, author of the newsletter Popular Information, that there are
"no significant concerns about fraud at intake" and said the change
is aimed at creating "additional hurdles to filing claims and
[overwhelming] the system."
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to
Preserve Social Security and Medicare, noted that for decades, senior citizens
and people with disabilities who rely on Social Security payments have been
able to verify their identities over the phone when applying for benefits.
"The new process would force seniors and people with
disabilities to navigate a needless technical hurdle in applying for their
earned benefits. If these claimants (who do not always have computers or
smartphones, reliable internet service, or the technical skills to complete the
process online) cannot verify their identity online, they would have to call
SSA via the already overburdened phone line to set up an appointment, and
travel in person to an SSA field office," said Richtman.
"The combination of fewer workers, fewer offices, and a massive increase in the demand for in-person services could sabotage the Social Security system."
With DOGE pushing to cut 7,000 jobs within the SSA and
close at least 47 regional and local field offices, the
change would particularly harm the ability of people in rural areas, with
mobility limitations, and with limited internet access to obtain their monthly
benefits.
"The combination of fewer workers, fewer offices, and a
massive increase in the demand for in-person services could sabotage the Social
Security system," said Legum,
who reported on the SSA memo on Monday.
Doris Diaz, the SSA acting deputy commissioner for
operations, is among those who have warned Dudek against forcing seniors to verify their
identities online, saying the change would cause longer wait and processing
times and would send an estimated 75,000-85,000 beneficiaries to increasingly
understaffed field offices per week.
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security
Works, which works to counter right-wing claims about Social Security and
lobbies to strengthen the system, told Common Dreams that
"despite Leland Dudek's claims, the only thing putting the American
people's personal Social Security data at risk is that Dudek turned it over to
DOGE operatives."
The new plan "will make it far harder for the American
people to claim their earned benefits. It could even cause major delays, and
ultimately collapse the system, by overwhelming the field offices," said
Altman.
"It is part of what appears to be an ongoing effort to
cause Social Security to collapse," she added.
Richtman said that the only "rational conclusion"
regarding the coming change in SSA operations is that Trump and Musk want to
"undermine public support for Social Security by rendering the SSA
dysfunctional, so that the program can be squeezed for cash, cut, and
privatized."
"Intentionally erecting obstacles for the people who've earned these benefits (and who pay for SSA operations with every paycheck) betrays at the least an indifference—and more likely, an outright hostility—to the elderly, people with disabilities, their families, and survivors who rely on Social Security," said Richtman.
"One has to ask why the world's
richest man—who has received in the tens of billions of dollars in federal
contracts—is targeting the agency that helps so many Americans keep their heads
above water financially."
