After weeks of bold claims about rampant fraud in the Social Security Administration (SSA), an internal investigation has found virtually no evidence supporting the allegations made by Elon Musk and members of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, according to reports from The Daily Beast and The New Republic.
As reported by NPR and Axios, internal SSA documents show that new anti-fraud checks installed for claims made over the phone flagged just two cases out of more than 110,000 as having a high probability of being fraudulent. Even these two cases aren’t guaranteed to involve fraud, and less than 1% of claims were flagged as potentially problematic.
The reality behind the fraud claims
Musk is reported to have claimed in a March speech that 40% of calls to the agency were “fraudulent.” Vice President J.D. Vance and President Donald Trump echoed similar assertions, referencing the existence of impossibly elderly beneficiaries receiving Social Security. According to CBS News and The Washington Post, these statements were part of broader attempts to spotlight fraud in entitlement programs.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) clarified that the 40% figure refers to direct deposit fraud associated with phone calls, not that 40% of all calls about bank information changes are fraudulent. As noted by NPR and Axios, SSA also explained that claims about extremely old beneficiaries stem from data entry anomalies or placeholder dates, not from deceased individuals continuing to receive payments.
The cost of fighting phantom fraud
While the fraud detection efforts uncovered little actual fraud, they caused significant disruption to Social Security services. According to internal documents reported by Axios and The New Republic, the anti-fraud measures slowed retirement claim processing by 25% and led to what was described as a “degradation of public service.”
The three-day hold placed on telephone claims to run anti-fraud checks “delays payments and benefits to customers, despite an extremely low risk of fraud,” as noted in the same internal SSA documents. This additional slowdown comes as the agency already faces an influx of retirement claims, with over 140,000 unprocessed claims that are more than 60 days old, a backlog highlighted by The Daily Beast and NPR.
A rollercoaster of policy changes
The SSA has implemented and modified several policies since March. The Washington Post and Axios reported that the agency initially announced that people could not file claims over the phone or use phone lines to change direct deposit information. About a week later, these restrictions were revised to apply only to retirement, survivor, and family benefit claims. Eventually, all claims were again allowed to be filed by phone, with back-end anti-fraud checks in place.
Currently, individuals who want to change their direct deposit information must first obtain a one-time code online through their SSA account before making changes by phone. Otherwise, they are required to visit an office in person, according to CBS News and NPR.
How common is Social Security fraud?
Fraud at the SSA remains exceptionally rare. According to data cited by The Daily Beast and NPR, only 0.3% of old-age, survivor, and disability insurance payments are classified as “improper payments”—a broad category that includes administrative errors like missing signatures. Actual fraud accounts for only a fraction of this already small percentage.
As reported by Axios, direct deposit fraud occurring over the phone represents less than 0.0003% of total benefits disbursed.
What happens next?
In light of these findings, Axios and The Washington Post report that SSA leadership is considering changes to its anti-fraud policies, including revisiting the controversial three-day hold on phone claims and potentially overhauling identity verification procedures.
For the millions of Americans who depend on Social Security, the controversy underscores what NPR describes as a delicate balance: preventing fraud while ensuring timely access to the essential benefits retirees have earned through decades of work.
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