“4th Circuit tosses DOJ effort to halt a 14-day order restricting DOGE access at the Social Security Admin. Now we await ruling on longer-term injunction (which admin would appeal)”
-Z Tillman
#Courts #SSA #USPol https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-20/judge-blocks-doge-access-to-social-security-records-for-now
30/ There is a viral story going around about possible disruptions of the #SSI payment system for April's payments, the SSA portal not showing archive payments or showing people are not getting SSI at all by Talking Points Memo.
After I read the article, I sent out an email to a few Representative Payees I know, who manage hundreds SSA accounts and payments for others, and none have seen the issues John Marshall of TPM is talking about.
My initial thought is, these people logged in when the SSA portal was shutting down for the night and the data disappeared (from their view) before they got a notification that |My #SSA.Gov" portal was down for the night
This article came out at 1:10am, a time when SSA portal was shut down, and a just over 1 hour after banks usually start transferring funds into accounts for SSI. For what it is worth, the treasury sends the banks SSI and SSA payments several days before the due date. Some release it early, as soon as they get it, some make people wait until the last possible moment, the start of banking hours the day of. The article: 
Possible New Disruption of SSI (Social Security) Payments https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/possible-disruption-of-ssi-and-ssdi-payments
You can log into your SSA account during these hours, and it has been like this for many, many years, under both R and D admin control:
Monday-Friday 4:15 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Saturday 5:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.
Federal Holidays Same hours as the day the holiday occurs.
With that said, do expect the unexpected with SSA. It is being hit with a wrecking ball and check your SSA account periodically. #SocialSecuirty #DOGE
Image: My view of SSA.Govshowing both my personal account and option to log in as a SSA benefit representative. (Edit was to clean this post up.)
What could possibly go wrong? #DOGE to rapidly rebuild #SocialSecurity codebase.
A safe and proper rewrite should take years not months.
The project organized by #Musk lieutenant #SteveDavis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talktell WIRED, and aims to migrate all #SSA systems off #COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like #Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-doge-to-rapidly-rebuild-social-security-codebase/
Note to GenXers with elderly parents. Do you manage their finances and Social Security account? If so, stay up to date with any forms you might need when they pass away. My dad passed in Feb and they locked his online SSA account within days. Now I have to file his taxes but have no SSA statement and can’t access it. Been on hold for two hours now.
EDIT: Took 3.5 hours for a 5 minute phone call. And I have to do it again next year. #socialsecurity #ssa #parents #caregiver #genx
#DOGE also announced drastic cuts at depts that provide critical #SocialServices including #VeteransAffairs [#VA], which administers #healthcare for #veterans, & the #SocialSecurity Administration, which sends out checks to #retired, #disabled & #widowed Americans [money Americans put into the #SSA out of their own paychecks].
#OPM …has laid off >200 of its own employees & allowed >400 to *opt in* to *voluntary* exit programs since #Trump took office…
@NinaBernstein1 Sounds like a job for SuperNina! I'm a retired guy and don't get 90% of my income from #SSA but the idea of someone taking what's rightfully mine pisses me off!
Heather Cox Richardson, 28 March 2025: ‘#Musk’s…#DOGE is planning to move the computer system of the #SocialSecurity Administration (#SSA) off…COBOL, to a new system. In 2017, the SSA estimated that such a migration would take about 5 years. DOGE is planning for the migration to take just a few months, using…[AI].
Experts have expressed concern... “If you weren’t worried about a whole bunch of people not getting #benefits…or having to wait ages, then sure go ahead.”’ https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/march-28-2025?r=7p2cc&utm_medium=ios
Anyone else wrestling with SSA online accounts this weekend? My husband’s was easy, mine is a struggle. I deleted login.gov because I lost my auth. app. Now the connection to SSA is messed up. I’m not retiring, just want to be connected online. #SSA
I think the plan will be to put a team together to translate the #SSA code bases to some other platform, that much is true. I don't believe that they're actually going to put a full faith effort into doing it. Crippling the Social Security Administration is the point. Legally & Legislatively, they can't kill it, it's too popular. They can, however, directly sabotage the SSA. Make it fail in such a catastrophic way that it loses all trust and credibility, *then* you can kill it legislatively.
SSA: Compassionate Allowances are a way to quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that, by definition, meet Social Security's standards for disability benefits. These conditions primarily include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, and a number of rare disorders that affect children. The CAL initiative helps us reduce waiting time to reach a disability determination for individuals with the most serious disabilities.
Anybody buying this communique from #SSA as anything other than reverse engineering for CYA purposes?
I'm not.
https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/releases/2025/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery#2025-03-27-a
I just tried to login to the SSA.gov through Login.gov. New procedure for #SSA you have to go through a multi-step identity verification and it requires your phone and taking pictures of your state driver's license or state non-driver ID, no other type of government ID is allowed so if you don't have one of those, you don't get into your SSA account. The last time Login.gov made me verify myself was in August. For some reason this time the browser on my phone (ffx) would not take a picture. I checked the app permissions and rebooted the phone. Still would not take a picture so I really wonder if there's something about the Login.gov page itself that is malfunctioning. The other option is to enter all your details and then take your ID to a post office along with a barcode that they issue you (which I had to take a picture of off the f*ing computer screen). Imagine someone who is 80 years old trying to fuck with this shit. Just imagine it. Jesus christ. #fascism #DOGE #SocialSecurity
On the weekly video call with my US-based elderly family members I mentioned to them that they all should have copies of their #SocialSecurity statements and benefits verification letters saved and printed out. They all were shocked by this. And these are people who are following the news and are concerned about what's happening.
None of them had used the #SSA website before. I put together a little guide for them which amounts to 25 steps (assuming they already have a login dot gov account).
Malicious actors have taken notice of news about the US Social Security System. We've seen multiple spam campaigns that attempt to phish users or lure them to download malware.
Emails with subjects like "Social Security Administrator.", "Social Security Statement", and "ensure the accuracy of your earnings record" contain malicious links and attachments.
One example contained a disguised URL that redirected to user2ilogon[.]es in order to download the trojan file named SsaViewer1.7.exe.
Actors using social security lures are connected to malicious campaigns targeting major brands through their DNS records.
Block these:
user2ilogon[.]es
viewer-ssa-gov[.]es
wellsffrago[.]com
nf-prime[.]com
deilvery-us[.]com
wllesfrarqo-home[.]com
nahud[.]com.
#dns #lookalikes #lookalikeDomain #threatintel #cybercrime #threatintelligence #cybersecurity #infoblox #infobloxthreatintel #infosec #pdns #malware #scam #ssa
@NinaBernstein1 As always, unk-unks (unknown unknowns) will kill the project and #SSA recipients. Anyone who has ever worked in any problem solving capacity knows this so I have to believe this is a deliberate attempt to kill SSA.
I asked #Grok: "What are the chances of success for Elon Musk's / DOGE's plan of rewriting (in two month's time) the SSA's COBOL codebase using AI?"
"[…] the chances of success […] are extremely low, likely in the single-digit percentage range (e.g., 5-10% at best).
This estimate assumes DOGE has exceptional resources and AI capabilities beyond what’s publicly known […] The stakes are high, and the margin for error is razor-thin."
https://x.com/i/grok/share/n9svocmPv28oPUXlCbbJruxTS
DOGE plans to migrate all Social Security Administration systems off COBOL in months, risking the integrity of SSA infrastructure. 
#DOGE #SocialSecurity #TechNews #COBOL #GovernmentTech #SSA #Infrastructure #ITNews #TechChallenges
#DOGE plans to rebuild #SSA's antiquated #COBOL code base in months instead of the years it'd take to do it safely, risking benefits & system collapse.
But, hey, when did Musk/Trump/DOGE ever give a crap about doing anything safely? Or right?
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
29/ Under the new #SocialSecuirty #SSA rule above, and the office closures and staff cuts mentioned in this thread above, if you don't have an SSA.Gov account before April 14th, 2025 and can use it, here is what Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) on Thursday had to say
(FYI, I am rural in #Ohio. My #SSA office was already 1 hour away. #DOGE and Musk closed it. My office is now over 2 hours away.)
"Say a 66-year-old man qualifies for Social Security. Say he calls the helpline to apply, but he's told about a new DOGE rule, so he has to go online or in person. He can't drive. He has trouble with the website, [or not permitted to use it until he does an in person visit to verify his ID because he didn't have a SSA.GOV account prior to the rule being implemented] so he waits until his niece can get a day off to take him to the local office, but DOGE closed that office, so they have to drive two hours to get to the next closest office. When they get there, there are only two people staffing a 50-person line, so he doesn't even make it to the front of the line before the office closes and he has to come back. Let's assume it takes him three months to straighten this out, and he misses a total of $5,000 in benefits checks, which, by law, he will never get back. This scenario is a backdoor way Musk and Trump could cut Social Security." #USPol
Musk Berated for 'Absurd' Social Security Fraud Lies | Common Dreams
The DOGE bros have shown to be incapable of supporting any web browser besides Chrome on Windows. That's how you get a json snippet when you visit their very simple hiring page in other browsers.
So, if you think, the Social Security Administration code rewrite will be great, consider that.
Also, can I interest you in a great bargain regarding a Florida gold mine?
