A recent initiative by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to detect fraud, partly driven by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk, has sparked significant controversy.
The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) recent anti-fraud initiative, influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has stirred a storm of debate. The DOGE, once under the leadership of Elon Musk, made audacious claims about rampant fraud within the SSA. However, the SSA’s new detection system revealed a starkly different reality, identifying only a minuscule amount of potential fraud while inadvertently delaying the processing of numerous claims.
The primary justification for the SSA’s anti-fraud policy stemmed from statements by DOGE members. Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE engineer, claimed on Fox News that 40% of calls to the SSA for direct deposit changes were from scammers. This assertion was echoed by Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. Musk even suggested that his engineers had uncovered “$100 billion a week” in fraudulent payments, a figure that raised eyebrows across the board.
But:
Of over 110,000 claims reviewed, less than 1% were flagged for potential fraud, and only two were deemed to have a “high probability” of being fraudulent.
