Social Security Chief Says White House Ordered 'Rapid' Phone Service Cutbacks [View all]

Source: Huff Post

Mar 24, 2025, 04:50 PM EDT


WASHINGTON ― The White House requested the rapid changes to phone service that the Social Security Administration plans to put in place next week, the agency’s leader said Monday. In a meeting with advocacy groups that are stakeholders in the agency’s disability and retirement programs, Leland Dudek said the sweeping changes he’s pursued since becoming acting commissioner last month were dialed up by his superiors in the Trump administration.

“He said, ‘The reason that we’re on this timeline is because we received a request from the White House. The leadership above me believes that we should do a rapid rollout,’” a source in the meeting told HuffPost. Two additional sources confirmed the account.

Dudek last week announced that for any transaction requiring Social Security claimants to verify their identities, starting on March 31 they will no longer be able to do so over the phone. Instead, claimants who can’t use the agency’s website will have to verify their identities in-person by visiting a field office. In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said simply, “Any American receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive them.”

Democratic members of Congress and groups such as the AARP have blasted the proposed change as an unnecessary burden on seniors and people with disabilities. “With Americans already waiting hours to get connected with Social Security on the phone, it is outrageous that under this new policy, older Americans, especially those in rural areas, will have to call, wait on hold for possibly hours, make an appointment, or even take a day off work to claim the benefits they have worked for and earned,” AARP’s Nancy LeaMond warned in a letter to Dudek.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leland-dudek-social-security-phone-service_n_67e1bb85e4b03e4bddd128db