‘Fears Of A Disruption To Their Social Security’: Raskin Wants Answers After Portal Goes Down
Musk and DOGE have been slashing benefits agency
A prominent Democratic lawmaker wants answers after reports that Social Security’s portal failed, leaving his constituents worried that their retirement benefits are in jeopardy.
After hearing reports from constituents in his Maryland’s district of a temporary outage affecting the Social Security Administration’s online portal, Rep Jamie Raskin sent a letter to the agency’s acting director soliciting a full account of the reported outage.
The incident follows what Raskin described as an unauthorized takeover of the Treasury Department payment management system by billionaire and close Trump adviser Elon Musk and his allies, unknown individuals who may lack appropriate security clearances, according to recent reporting.
Collectively, these people are known as “DOGE.”
More than 123,000 residents of Raskin’s district in suburban Washington DC receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits from SSA each month, according to a statement from the congressman. (Full disclosure: The author of this article is one those recipients in Raskin’s district.)
“The mySSA online portal is intended to facilitate easy access to both Social Security and Medicare benefits information—in addition to accompanying tax information—for every eligible American,” Raskin wrote. “Ensuring reliable access to this portal is both a critical part of upholding the public’s trust in their government and fundamental to the faithful execution of the laws passed by Congress.”
The letter asks Acting Commissioner Michelle King to provide Representative Raskin’s office with further information about the reported mySSA outage, including its duration and the number of affected users, and what steps SSA is taking to prevent future unforeseen mySSA outages.
“My constituents have been calling my office nonstop to express their fears of a disruption to their Social Security, Medicare and other earned benefits after an unelected billionaire and his unvetted staff exercised an unprecedented takeover of the U.S. government’s system of payments,” Raskin concluded.
Martin O’Malley, last Senate-confirmed Social Security commissioner during the Biden administration, has predicted that interference by DOGE will cause an eventual collapse of the Social Security delivery system.
The mySSA portal, which services 17 million users nationwide, is a free online benefits portal where Americans can check the status of their benefits applications, access proof of their benefits, easily solicit a change of address or modify their direct deposit information.
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