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Poor, disabled, and vulnerable Americans who rely on Social Security to survive now have fewer resources to access those benefits thanks to cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The cuts — made to the already-understaffed Social Security Administration (SSA) — will make it harder for some Americans to obtain their benefits, a source familiar with Social Security offices and contractors tells Rolling Stone and American Doom.
First, Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency shuttered at least 10 Social Security field offices in as many states. Now, DOGE has eliminated the SSA’s Office of Transformation, a department whose work included making it easier for Americans to apply for and access benefits online — the exact service many people will need now that offices are being closed across the country. As part of the cuts, employees who manage the agency’s website, where millions of Americans go to access information about their benefits and contact customer support, were placed on leave.
It’s all part of the Trump administration plans to reduce the agency’s workforce by half, including more closures of some of the 1,200 local Social Security offices where Americans receive their benefits, according to the American Prospect.
“We’re talking about people who are disabled or don’t have easy technological access” to navigate the process of receiving benefits, says the source, who is close to the Social Security Administration and its work to streamline online systems, and who has been granted anonymity to speak freely about their work without fear of retaliation. “I don’t think any of it makes any sense. I think that they’re just doing things to intentionally create chaos and fear, of making drastic changes for the sake of drastic changes and chaos.”
In addition to eliminating the Office of Transformation and closing at least 10 Social Security Administration offices where poor and disabled Americans go to receive their checks or apply for benefits, DOGE also eliminated the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity. The source close to the agency tells Rolling Stone and American Doom that the Office of Transformation oversaw work to streamline online access for Social Security recipients so they could avoid having to go to one of the agency’s physical offices. Now, some of those offices have been closed and staffers working on the online systems have been eliminated.
In all, the elimination of the civil rights office and the Office of Transformation have put about 140 federal employees out of work.
But it’s not just the federal workers who will be affected, the source says. Poor and disabled Americans, who may struggle with technology, may have limited access to a computer or smartphone, or can’t easily get to a physical Social Security office, will now face even more challenges applying for and accessing their benefits.
“The harm being done to the American public as a result of these cuts, especially the most vulnerable populations who rely on Social Security benefits to survive, is the real issue,” the source says. “The American public will bear the true cost of the loss of the public servants who devoted their careers to making government benefits and services accessible and equitable for all.”
The source noted that, under the Biden administration, the agency was working to simplify the application process — work that now has an uncertain future as DOGE has shuttered Social Security Administration offices.
Drastic cuts to the social safety net will have to take place for Musk and Trump to reach the $2 trillion in government spending cuts they’ve promised, economists and Democrats have said. That means cutting spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. After repeatedly claiming his administration wouldn’t reduce Medicare or Medicaid spending, Trump has now come out in favor of a federal budget that calls for $880 billion in cuts expected to come from Medicaid.
Trump has also promised not to cut Social Security benefits, but DOGE has been running roughshod through the agency in recent weeks. A day after closing the Office of Transformation, DOGE eliminated the agency’s civil rights office.
“Terminating the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, and reassigning statutory responsibilities performed by this office, advances the president’s goal to make all of government more efficient in serving the American public,” acting Social Security commissioner Lee Dudek said in a statement.
Dudek appears to be a true believer in Trump’s mission to dismantle the government. Prior to being named acting Social Security commissioner, Dudek was placed on leave for surreptitiously helping DOGE access information and systems within the agency — work he performed even before Trump’s inauguration, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done,” Dudek wrote in a since-deleted LinkedIn post.
The previous commissioner, Michelle King, resigned in protest when DOGE tried to access the sensitive records of millions of Americans. Dudek passed over dozens of more experienced officials in becoming the acting commissioner, the Journal reported.
Trump’s pick to lead the agency, Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano, is awaiting confirmation by the Senate. Bisignano’s private company notably has a history of saving money by closing offices and firing thousands of employees.
In addition to the mass job purge, Trump and Musk have added to attacks on the Social Security Administration with false claims of widespread fraud in the form of improper payments to Americans who are more than 150 years old.
The claim likely stems from Musk’s misunderstanding of Social Security’s coding and data systems, which default to a specific date in 1875 for aid recipients whose dates of birth aren’t known in the agency’s databases. While Musk’s claims have been roundly debunked, even by podcaster Joe Rogan, Trump has continued to spread the falsehoods, telling the audience at CPAC that tens of millions of Americans over 100 years of age — and possibly dead — are improperly receiving Social Security benefits.
Trump then signed an executive order promising to prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving government aid — although it’s unclear which programs it will affect, this is already illegal under federal law, and wildly hypocritical considering undocumented immigrants contribute tens of billions of dollars to Social Security that they are then never eligible to receive in old age.
The false claims about Social Security benefits going to dead people are part of the administration’s justification of gutting the agency. But inefficiencies within the Social Security Administration are the subject of regular examination by the agency’s office of the inspector general.
Mike Ware, who up until Trump fired him was the inspector general for both the Social Security Administration and the Small Business Administration, found $71 billion worth of improper Social Security payments — less than one percent of all payments made — in a report his office released in 2024. Ironically, that report was cited by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as evidence that the agency needed the drastic reform and cuts that DOGE is carrying out. Leavitt did not note that the improper payments were discovered by Ware, whom Trump fired.
All this dismantling of an agency that millions of Americans rely on may be the actual plan, said former Maryland governor and Social Security commissioner Martin O’Malley. O’Malley noted that DOGE has also eliminated a Social Security Administration office that performs oversight, and told ProPublica that Trump and Musk “are going to break the largest, most important social program in America.”
The source close to the Social Security Administration tells Rolling Stone and American Doom that federal employees like those in the agency are being unfairly maligned by Musk, Trump, and others.
“These were highly skilled employees and contractors who framed everything they did through a lens of helping the most vulnerable people within the American public,” the source says. “There is no glory in this work.”
This story is being published in partnership with American Doom, a newsletter that focuses on right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy.
