Elon Musk’s Department of Efficiency now has 10 employees at the Social Security Bureau as Trump White House sought evidence to back its claim that millions of dead people could gain public interest.
Two sworn in office statements filed in federal court Wednesday night show that SSA has formed four special government employees and six Doge employees leased by other departments in recent weeks.
Their mission: Discover waste, fraud and abuse in the 90-year-old US Social Security Bureau.
Musk called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and recommended that entitled fraud be as high as $700 billion per year this week. Critics say he is working to cut down on the pandemic plan. Others are worried that Musk’s team can access the most sensitive data of Americans.
From 2015 to 2022, Social Security estimates that it has mispaid nearly $72 billion, less than 1% of the benefits paid.Reportlast year. However, this is not because of fraud, but all quantities except $23 billion can be recovered.
At least seven Doge employees are granted access to a database called Social Security Number Holders and SSN applications (also known as NumInter). They are currently only reading access when trying to link the point between Social Security numbers and possible fraudulent gains.
The database often lacks death dates, the fact that his billionaire advisers Donald Trump and Musk have long argued that more than 100 people are still within the scope of Social Security.
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Leland Dudekan anti-fraud expert, who was promoted to acting social security commissioner after Trump was suspended last month for his work with Doge, delayed those claims.
Just because Dudek isstatement. These are managed in a separate database, namely the master beneficiary records.
“We are firmly committed to rooting fraud, waste and abuse in the plans and actively correcting the contradictions of missing death dates,” he said.
Death data
In fact, at least six Doge staff at the agency are using death data. The Social Security Bureau maintained a file of master deaths reported by more than 94 million people, reporting deaths collected from state records and funeral curator.
Other databases used in hunting are supplementary security records that contain data on disability benefits and Treasury payment documents. The income database may also contain limited taxpayer information used to calculate welfare eligibility.
Michael Russo, the agency’s chief technology officer, said in a sworn in statement that Doge had access to copies of the database, limiting the ability to make changes. He said there are safeguards that ensure private servers that are not connected to SSA data.
Russo’s statement was included in court later Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the United States Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. Public Employees union filed a lawsuit against Doge and the Maryland-based Social Security Department in an attempt to block what it calls “unprecedented data acquisition.”
“The overall goal of the work done by the SSA Doge team is to detect fraud, waste and abuse in the SSA program,” Russo said. “This level of access ensures that these employees can view the records needed to detect fraud, but do not allow them to make any changes to beneficiary data or payment documents.”
Neither Russo nor Deputy Commissioner Florence Felix Lawson filed a sworn in statements, neither of them would identify the “goalkeeper” staff by name, “avoiding exposing them to threats and harassment.”
But the agency’s special government employees and threshold details include previous Tesla Antonio Gracias, the board member of the Brave Stock Partner; Scott Coulter, who was originally the lonely Pine Capital; Marko Elez was released by Doge and resigned for reporting on racist social media posts.
The Social Security Agency has become a key outpost for Doge as it manages $1.6 trillion in annual benefits, but also because of its unique location to access a wide range of government data. Indeed, Doge’s search for fraud in social security is also radiating to other federal agencies.
Two Doge team members also have access to the New Hires National Directory, a database retained by the Heath and Human Services Department’s Office of Child Support Services to help states enforce child support.
Moreover, a member of the Social Security Satellite Team will be sent to the Small Business Administration soon.
The court application also shows how Doge team members move around between agencies. Six Social Security staff members come from other agencies, including the National Aviation and Space Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Labor and General Services Administration.
A White House agency from the U.S. Governor Service, a command from Trump’s Inauguration Day director, created the cost-cutting initiative.
This story was originally fortune.com
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