Social Security Administration to require in-person identity checks for new and existing recipients

Demonstrators gather Friday outside a courthouse in Baltimore before a hearing regarding access to Social Security data by Elon Musk’s White House team. Calling it an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone. “The Social Security Administration is losing over $100 million a year in direct deposit fraud,” Leland Dudek, the agency’s acting commissioner, said on a Tuesday evening call with reporters — his first call with reporters. Rep. John B. Larson of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, said in a statement that “by requiring seniors and disabled Americans to enroll online or in person at the same field offices they are trying to close, rather than over the phone, Trump and Musk are trying to create chaos and inefficiencies at SSA so they can privatize the system.” Voices Hiltzik: A Social Security insider describes DOGE’s rampage at the agency and the threat to your benefits How a DOGE team ran roughshod through the Social Security Administration, gaining access to personal data and putting benefit payments in jeopardy. In addition a group of labor unions last week sued and asked a federal court for an emergency order to stop Musk’s DOGE team from accessing the sensitive Social Security data of millions of Americans.