Democrat Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) under former President Joe Biden, is warning that the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs at the SSA will threaten the agency’s ability to function — and likely result in Social Security payments being delayed.
According to O’Malley, the Trump Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are laying off workers who are essential to SSA and have deep knowledge of how the agency works.
The Guardian’s Michael Sainato, in an article published on May 20, addresses the worries of Social Security recipients.
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“An average of nearly 69 million Americans will receive Social Security benefits a month in 2025, most of them older people or those with disabilities,” Sainato explains. “The agency has been a significant target of the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) and its former leader Elon Musk, who has called Social Security ‘the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.’ Attacks on Social Security are not new — Republicans have long pushed to privatize Social Security and raise the retirement age to 69 years old —but the latest salvoes are having a profound impact on the agency and those who rely upon it.”
Judi, an 85-year-old retiree, considers the Trump Administration a major threat to her Social Security benefits.
Judi told The Guardian, “Every month since the beginning of this regime, I am concerned. Will my check be there? Will there be some excuse for the check not coming? Will they cut the amount? And who are these people who have access to my private information? Information that the Social Security Administration always kept private?”
Lorrie Bennett, a 63-year-old Louisville, Kentucky, residents who receives disability benefits, told The Guardian that her payout date was recently changed without notice and that her accounts are being monitored for fraud because of concerns over her data possibility being compromised by DOGE.
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According to Bennett, “I didn’t know until the payment didn’t show up. When I contacted the SS Administration, they didn’t see anything in the system showing the change.”
Arthur Gross, a 72-year-old resident of Woodside, Queens in New York City, told The Guardian, “Now, with the Trump and Musk destruction of federal agencies in general and Social Security in particular, I have to worry each month until my payment shows up.”
A 70-year-old retiree in Indiana, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, told The Guardian, “For the first time in my life, my wife and I are stressed out and worried if I will get my payment and if it will be on time.”
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Read Michael Sainato’s full article for The Guardian at this link.
