Social Security site collapses attributed to Doge software upgrade.

Elon Musk, with his fingers in numerous pies, has found himself right in the thick of things at the Social Security Administration (SSA), courtesy of his role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The journey's been bumpy, with the SSA's capacity to distribute payments taking a hit, according to a new report. Let's dive into what's been going down.

The SSA's website has been plagued with outages lately, and it's movie time to point fingers. The culprit? The expansion of fraud checks earlier in the claims process, a move initiated by the Trump administration, so says the Washington Post. This expansion, trailing a existing contract with a credit-reporting agency that tracks names, addresses, and other personal info to verify customers' identities, has seen an uptick in the volume of individuals subject to these checks, leading to network crashes.

Shocking, huh? You'd think someone might've tested the software against a high volume of users to see if the servers could handle the rush. But, nope. Current and former officials confirmed that didn't happen. The aftermath? Connectivity issues and bugs with the expanded system, causing the portal that manages log-ins and authentication for many Social Security applications to go down.

The SSA's been having a rough time, with President Trump slashing funds left, right, and center, leaving fewer employees to provide phone support, a preferred choice for many older individuals. Musk, ever the alarmist, has repeatedly claimed widespread fraud in the claims process. Even during a Wisconsin rally, he alleged that 40% of calls to the agency were fraudulent—a claim yet to be supported by evidence. The new software-based checks were meant to root out this supposed fraud, but goddammit DOGE also directed the SSA to cut its IT staff, resulting in the website being unable to handle the increased load.

Website outages, eh? No biggie, right? Wrong. When you saw off the table's legs, it ain't exactly gonna stand up, is it? The SSA may have had its fair share of downtime pre-new administration, but these service issues were predictable - if not downright inevitable. Musk, buoyed by his takeover of Twitter, seems to think otherwise. He managed to slash the majority of staff there and somehow kept the service running, albeit riddled with issues.- spitefully, like the proverbial canary in a coalmine, the uptime of a social network doesn't compete with the distribution of payments necessary for living into retirement.

In Upland, California, 72-year-old Kathy Stecher, trying to apply for retirement benefits, encountered one such problem. For over a week, Stecher failed to schedule a required appointment at her local field office via the SSA website. The booking tool repeatedly refused to work, forcing her to wait on hold for hours. Needless to say, retirees and others reliant on Social Security payments for basic survival can't afford such runarounds.

President Trump, for the record, has maintained that he'd never mess with Social Security, code for: politically unpopular. But, here's the twist. The ongoing trade war initiated by Trump is expected to hit his base - working-class Americans - the hardest. Apparently, it's an absolute dealbreaker that the US has to buy rare earth metals from other countries.

The White House, in typical fashion, continues to assert that nothing's changing at the Social Security Administration - that every recipient will continue to receive their benefits, according to a recent statement. The irony? While Musk and Trump are swimming in wealth, the ongoing trade war could leave their working-class compatriots high and dry. A big middle finger to an already vulnerable population.

Bonus Insights:

Data Access and Fraud Investigations: Musk's access to SSA data to investigate fraud has raised privacy concerns and legal challenges by groups like the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in federal court.
Privatization: Critics fear that these changes are part of a broader strategy to privatize Social Security, which could significantly alter how benefits are distributed and managed in the future. In the Bush administration, a proposal to privatize Social Security was on the table, requiring individuals to convert their 401(k) holdings into annuities, potentially making their retirement payments influenced by the markets.

Elon Musk, in his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has expressed his support for reducing fraud in the Social Security Administration (SSA), but his methods have been controversial.
The recent expansion of fraud checks initiated by the SSA, with the aid of a credit-reporting agency, has resulted in a higher volume of individuals being subjected to these checks, leading to network crashes and service disruptions, as noted in a new report.
The SSA's reduced workforce, as a result of budget cuts under President Trump, has left fewer employees available to provide phone support, exacerbating the problems faced by retirees and others relying on Social Security payments.
While Musk's intentions to combat fraud may seem laudable, the simultaneous directive from the DOGE to cut the SSA's IT staff has raised questions about the agency's capacity to handle increased workloads, as evident in the continuing website outages and service disruptions.