Social Security Administration to curtail some toll-free phone services

The Social Security Administration says Americans will no longer be able to change direct deposit and other banking information with the agency by phone, a practice it claims opens the door to fraud.

“Approximately 40% of Social Security direct deposit fraud is associated with someone calling SSA to change direct deposit bank information. SSA’s current protocol of simply asking identifying questions by telephone is no longer enough to prevent fraud,” the agency stated late Wednesday.

Making changes to bank account information with SSA will now require recipients to use two-factor authentication with SSA’s “my Social Security” service or by visiting a local Social Security office to prove their identity. All other SSA telephone services remain the same, according to the agency, which labeled as “inaccurate” reports that it planned to get rid of telephone services entirely.

The Washington Post had reported plans were in the works to end phone service for the millions of Americans filing retirement and disability claims as Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting team has targeted the agency for staff cuts of more than 12%.

The newspaper more recently reported that the SSA had dropped its plan to end the phone service, instead opting to go forward with a more limited portion of its initial proposal.

Without offering any evidence, Musk has claimed 150-year-olds were somehow collecting Social Security benefits and getting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money. President Trump repeated those allegations during his address to Congress last month. 

The agency’s toll-free number has for decades served as the backbone for disabled and older Americans who don’t have internet access or have trouble navigating the web to access earned government benefits.

SSA workers have in recent days warned
that the Trump administration’s plan to significantly downsize
the agency could harm their ability to provide service to the millions of retirees, disabled people and others who rely on the program. 

President Trump vowed on the campaign trail not to touch the old-age and disability insurance program, which provides monthly payments to nearly 70 million people, or roughly 1 in 5 Americans.