The Social Security Administration's website has suffered repeated crashes in recent weeks, disrupting benefit access for millions of Americans, amid an aggressive push by the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to root out alleged fraud. The outages have been widely linked to an untested expansion of anti-fraud software, implemented earlier in the claims process and rolled out without sufficient infrastructure, according to current and former officials cited by The Washington Post.
"The network crashes appear to be caused by an expansion initiated by the Trump team of an existing contract with a credit-reporting agency that tracks names, addresses and other personal information to verify customers' identities," the Post reported. "But the technology staff did not test the software against a high volume of users to see if the servers could handle the rush."
The site collapse has affected the portal used to authenticate identities and manage benefits, leaving retirees, low-income families, and disabled individuals unable to access critical services. Many reported being unable to sign in or, once signed in, finding their information missing.
Elon Musk, who has referred to Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" and accused the agency of sending "checks to dead people," has spearheaded efforts through DOGE to overhaul the system by drastically slashing staff and digitizing services. According to the Post, the enhanced checks have significantly increased the number of users routed through online identity verification, yet DOGE's tech team failed to assess whether the systems could withstand the traffic spike.
The Department of Government Efficiency, staffed in part by a group of young appointees including a 19-year-old college freshman, has already overseen the termination of approximately 7,000 SSA workers. Despite the mass layoffs, the administration continues to shift operations online, effectively reducing live support options. "At DOGE, we talked about this from the beginning... we're going to do 80 percent cuts, but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we'll make mistakes," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said last week, according to Politico.
One of the most visible consequences of these failures has been experienced by people like Kathy Stecher, a 72-year-old retiree in Upland, California, who attempted to schedule a mandatory appointment through the SSA website. She told The Washington Post that the site showed a small bar labeled "Make an appointment," but nothing happened when she clicked on it. When she finally reached someone by phone, the representative acknowledged the problem and said similar issues had become routine.
Darcy Milburn, director of Social Security policy at the nonprofit Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said: "Social Security's response has been, 'Oops.' It's woefully insufficient when we're talking about a government agency that's holding someone's lifeline in their hands."
The outages come amid a broader campaign by President Trump to restructure federal agencies. At rallies and public events, Trump has alleged widespread abuse within Social Security, claiming without evidence that "40% of calls to the agency are fraudulent." While a 2024 Inspector General report found less than 1% of SSA payments were erroneous between 2015 and 2022, the administration has cited these claims to justify large-scale changes.
Some observers suggest the dysfunction may not be accidental. As privatization proposals-long popular among conservatives-resurface, critics argue the weakened SSA could serve as a pretext for outsourcing parts of the program. A plan floated during President George W. Bush's administration proposed converting individual 401(k)s into annuities, tying retirement income to financial markets.
A White House spokesperson, however, insisted no benefits will be disrupted. "With a resounding mandate from the American people, President Trump is moving quickly to fulfill his promise of making the federal government more efficient," the statement read. "He has promised to protect Social Security, and every recipient will continue to receive their benefits."
Nevertheless, the delays and disruptions have sparked growing concern as over 7.4 million adults and children rely on monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments. Users attempting to access the site have instead encountered messages stating, "We're sorry, but the online service you requested isn't available right now. We apologize for the inconvenience."
