An internal document obtained by Nextgov/FCW has revealed that a Trump administration anti-fraud initiative targeting Social Security has flagged just two potentially improper claims out of more than 110,000—a fraud rate of just 0.0018 percent. The policy, which placed a three-day hold on all phone-based Social Security benefit claims, was justified by false public claims from Elon Musk and others alleging widespread abuse of the system.
“No significant fraud has been detected from the flagged cases,” the Social Security Administration (SSA) document stated. The revelation sharply undercuts the narrative pushed by President Donald Trump and Musk that Social Security is awash in fraud. In March, Musk falsely claimed that “40 percent of the calls into Social Security were fraudulent,” echoing similar misinformation from administration officials and Vice President J.D. Vance.
The internal document also noted that the policy had significantly disrupted service: the anti-fraud check “delays payments and benefits to customers, despite an extremely low risk of fraud.” Retirement claim processing dropped by 25 percent, and the SSA now has over 140,000 retirement claims that are more than 60 days old.
Senator Elizabeth Warren denounced the revelations in a statement, saying, “The Trump-Musk Social Security takeover has only meant more chaos and confusion for Americans.” On social media, she called it “a HUGE scandal,” and added, “Every one of DOGE’s so-called ‘mistakes’ is a backdoor cut to people’s benefits. There’s nothing efficient about making it harder for people to access the checks they’ve earned and are owed.”
Implemented in April, the policy was part of a broader effort by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a White House office led by Musk allies, to scrutinize Social Security benefit claims made over the phone. Under the new protocol, all telephone claims initially faced back-end anti-fraud checks using technology from TransUnion and PinDrop. Only later were disability claims exempted following internal pushback.
Applicants flagged as suspicious were told they had to appear in person to verify their identities. The SSA considered reversing the three-day hold and reworking identity verification policies in response to service degradation, but no final changes have been made public.
In March, the SSA announced a sudden halt to all phone-based benefit claims and changes to direct deposit information, citing alleged fraud concerns. After widespread backlash, the agency revised the policy to allow only retirement, survivor, and family benefit claims over the phone with back-end screening, and then eventually reinstated full access with the new anti-fraud system in place.
Despite this whiplash of changes, data continues to show that fraud within the Social Security system is minimal. A recent inspector general report estimated that just 0.84 percent of benefits from 2015 to 2022 were improperly paid—and even those improper payments were not necessarily fraudulent. For old-age, survivor, and disability insurance, improper payments account for only 0.3 percent, and fraud is a fraction of that. Direct deposit fraud involving phone calls accounts for less than 0.0003 percent of total benefits.
Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wasn’t surprised at the minuscule results. “It seemed like a solution in search of a problem,” she said. “So many of these policy changes—the proposals, the reversals, the things that SSA has done over these past several months—seem to have been fueled by misinformation from people like Elon Musk.”
Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE engineer, said during a March 27 interview on Fox News that “40 percent of phone calls made to SSA to change direct deposit information come from fraudsters.” However, the SSA itself later clarified that 40 percent of known fraud involving direct deposit involved phone calls—it did not mean that 40 percent of calls were fraudulent.
Musk repeated the false statistic during a speech later that month, and Vice President J.D. Vance reiterated it publicly while asserting, “DOGE has got a lot of work to do.” President Trump also joined in, repeating long-debunked claims about extremely elderly or deceased individuals receiving benefits. CNN reported that under the administration’s direction, SSA staff have been “seeing more people coming in to be resurrected” after being incorrectly flagged as deceased.
Frank Bisignano, the newly confirmed SSA administrator with ties to Musk’s DOGE team, has defended these initiatives, even as confusion and delays mount for claimants.
Meanwhile, former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley publicly condemned the anti-fraud campaign’s origins: “I’ve been saying it all along. Elon Musk is the biggest fraud, not Social Security.”
Following publication of the Nextgov/FCW report, former acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek claimed that “in the last 30 days SSA stopped 20k fraudulent attempts” across all transactions involving direct deposit, including both phone and internet claims. However, the internal document at the center of the controversy specifically concerned phone-based claims alone, and Dudek’s broader assertion has not been independently substantiated. The SSA declined to comment further.
Currently, individuals who want to change their direct deposit information are required to log into their SSA accounts online and obtain a one-time code before they can proceed with the change over the phone. Otherwise, they must visit an SSA office in person—an approach advocates warn will disenfranchise millions.
“This is Republican governing: hunting for nonexistent fraud while breaking Social Security,” Senator Patty Murray wrote. “Turns out there ISN’T rampant Social Security fraud, but Elon’s witch hunt, driven by his insane conspiracy theories, IS keeping seniors from getting their benefits as quickly as they should be.”
In April, Senator Warren and other lawmakers launched the “Social Security War Room” to fight back against what they describe as politically motivated sabotage of a critical federal program.
The disruptions have fueled broader concerns that the Trump-Musk focus on Social Security “fraud” is less about program integrity and more about undermining a popular public benefit. Analysts and advocates see a familiar strategy: inflating rare anomalies into manufactured crises to justify burdensome restrictions, erode trust in the agency, and pave the way for future privatization efforts.
“There’s nothing efficient about making it harder for people to access the checks they’ve earned and are owed,” Warren said.
COMMENTS