Cnn
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When people think of social security, they usually think of monthly benefits – about 69 million pensioners, disabled, dependent and survivor workers they receive today.
But the word that members of the Government Efficiency Department are seeking access to social security administration data systems should create data from hundreds of millions of people.
Why? Because numerous SSA data systems contain extensive personal information about most people living in the United States today – as well as those who have died over the years.
It is data that goes “from the cradle to the grave,” said Kathleen Romig, who worked in SSA, first as a retirement policy analyst and most recently as a senior adviser at the Commissioner’s office.
Dage was unilaterally created by President Donald Trump in order to “modernize technology and federal software to maximize government efficiency and productivity,” according to his executive order. So far, the group has caused chaos and intimidation in a number of federal agencies where it has sought to take control and close different types of expenses. Also, also the subject of various lawsuits that question its legal right to wholesale the personal data of Americans in the limited IT systems of the government and the fire groups of federal workers in the way it is.
Here are only a partial list of data that SSA systems are likely to have for you: your name, social security number, date and place of birth, gender, addresses, marital and parental status, your parents’ names, of Life income, bank account information, immigration and labor authorization status, health conditions if you apply for disability benefits and use of media after an age of age assigned, which SSA can check periodically to ascertain if you are still alive.
Other types of personal information can also be obtained or complied through SSA Data Sharing Agreements with IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services. Information on your assets and living arrangements can also be collected if you apply for additional security income (SSI), which is intended to help them with very limited income.
As with IRS data systems, for which DOGE has also required access, SSA systems are old, complex, interconnected and executed in the programming language developed decades ago. If you make a change in one system, it can travel another if you do not know what you are doing, said Romig, who is now director of social security and disability policy at the Liberal Center for Budget and Priorities of Policy.
And, as in IRS, there are concerns that if Doge team members receive access to SSA systems and seek to make changes directly or through an SSA employee, they can cause technical errors or base their decisions on incorrect meanings data.
For example, the Director General of Multibillioner Elon Musk, who runs Doge, has mistakenly claimed that SSA is making payments for millions of dead people. His claim appears to be based on the so -called Numidident List, which is a limited collection of personal data, Romig said. The list includes names, social security numbers and date of birth and death of a person. But the list of numbers does not reflect death dates for 18.9 million people who were born in 1920 or earlier. This is a well -known problem, which the Inspector General of Social Security in a 2023 report has already recommended the correct agency. However, the same report also noted that “almost none of the 18.9 million numbers currently receive SSA payments.”
And making a decision based on wrong interpretations can create real -world problems for individuals.
For example, Romig said, there are different types of social security numbers – for example, for American citizens, for not – citizens with work authorization and for people in the visas of students who do not have work authorization. But a person’s status can change over time. For example, someone in the student visa can eventually receive work authorization. But it is up to the individual to update SSA in their status. If they do not do so immediately or maybe not for years, the lists in SSA systems may not be fully updated. So it is easy to see how a new entity like Doge, unknown with the complexity of social security processes, can make a quick decision affecting a particular group of people in a list that may not be current.
Charles Blahous, a senior research strategist at Mercatus Center at George Mason University, has been a major supporter to address the lack of long -term social security funds. And he is everything to root debris, fraud and abuse.
But blahous pointed out, “the best evaluations of improper payment in social security are less than 1% of the program spending. I have been concerned that this particular conversation is promoting in -depth abuses for social security and challenges of the politics that surround it. ”
SSA data systems are placed in closed rooms, and permission to see – never forget – information on them have always been very limited, Romig said, stressing that it was printed with fingers and had to pass a Background check before being allowed to look at the data for research while it was at the agency – and can only be data that had no personally identifiable information.
Given the variety of personal data available, there are also a number of federal intimacy and other laws that limit the use and distribution of such information.
Such laws are intended to prevent not only improper use or data leaks by individuals, but the abuse of power by the government, according to the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Over the weekend, SSA Acting Commissioner Michelle King, a long -term career service executive, resigned after DOGE employees tried to enter the government’s sensitive data. Instead, the employee of SSA Lee Duke was appointed director of office.
Duke decided a statement on “commitment to agencies’ transparency and SSA’s benefits and information” on Wednesday. “My first call as a commissioner of office was in our office of the Inspector General (OIG) to provide them with an opportunity to oversee and revise any and all agency activities, including my past actions, the present and the future, ”he said.
Trump has already dismissed a number of IgS agency, including Ware Hannibal, who had served as Ig forced for SSA since falling. These fires are the subject of a lawsuit. The Office of the Inspector General told CNN that Michelle Anderson, an assistant Inspector General, is currently performing the duties of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.
Duke also noted in his statement that DOGE staff: a) “cannot make changes to agency systems, benefits payments or other information”; b) “only read access” to data; and c) “do not have access to data related to an ordering court of temporary restriction order, current or future”; and d) “must follow the law and if they violate the law, they will refer to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution.”