Social Security Administration officials initially said people could no longer apply for benefits over the phone starting Monday, April 14 due to high fraud risks. However, an internal memo obtained by the Post now says the agency will employ a fraud-detecting tool to monitor transactions and will continue taking applications via phone.
The change ordered up by DOGE would have required new applicants to seek appointments at Social Security offices or via the agency’s website. However, the website has suffered massive outages in recent weeks due to staffing cuts, and advocates for older and disabled Americans warn that many would be required to make lengthy drives to Social Security offices to keep in-person application appointments.
“There’s a tremendous amount of anxiety right now about what’s going on, what the truth is and whether people need to camp out in front of the Social Security office to authenticate their identities,” AARP Senior Director for Community Strategy Lisa Rodriguez told the Current earlier this week. “It’s only going to get worse.”
Rodriguez told the Current that some people trying to apply via phone ahead of the April 14 deadline were subjected to on-hold waits of as long as six hours. AARP, the nation’s largest advocacy group for older Americans, mobilized its members to call Congress to demand the April 14 deadline be dropped.
Despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he wouldn’t cut Social Security, the agency has lost thousands of employees due to the administration’s draconian staffing reductions. That includes a 50% cut to the agency’s technology unit, which oversees its website.
At the same time, Musk and Trump have repeatedly pushed debunked claims that the Social Security Agency is riddled with fraud and abuse.
The Social Security Administration handles some 9.5 million claims annually, and roughly 40% of those are initiated over the phone, according to the Post.
In the internal memo obtained by the Post, Acting Deputy Commissioner Doris Diaz said the risk of continuing phone applications “is lower than sending 40,000-plus teleclaims customers to field offices per week for in-person identity proofing.” Scrapping the deadline also “significantly reduces risk of potential service disruption,” she added.
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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.