#ssa applications

[namesnums]

More and more uncommon names are excluded from the SSA name dataset.

For privacy reasons, the SSA name dataset excludes very uncommon names.

The graph below shows the percent of Social Security card applicants that have been excluded from the SSA name dataset each year.

Per the stated limitations of the SSA name dataset:

To safeguard privacy, we exclude from our tabulated lists of names those that would indicate, or would allow the ability to determine, names with fewer than 5 occurrences in any geographic area. If a name has less than 5 occurrences for a year of birth in any state, the sum of the state counts for that year will be less than the national count.

The SSA also publishes a table with the number of Social Security card applicants by year. This table contains total numbers and not specific names, so applicants with very uncommon names are accounted for in this table. Each year, there is a gap between the number of Social Security card applicants and the number of births accounted for in the SSA name dataset.

[saywhat-politics]

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone.

Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s “my Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.

An internal Social Security Administration (SSA) memo, sent on March 13 and obtained by Popular Information, details proposed changes to the claims process that would debilitate the agency, cause significant processing delays, and prevent many Americans from applying for or receiving benefits.

The memo, authored by Acting Deputy SSA Commissioner Doris Diaz, purports to be motivated by a desire to mitigate "fraud risks."

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

Last night during a town hall with the Spanish-language news network Univision, Vice President and presidential nominee Kamala Harris received a question from a person with Long COVID who applied for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) three years ago and still hasn’t received a decision on her case.

Martha, who is 62, had a heart attack in 2020 and was later diagnosed with Long COVID, “which will disable me for the rest of my life,” she said. The disease has caused her to lose her job and become homeless. She asked Harris how disabled people could better access disability insurance.

Harris responded with a lengthy answer that advocates and many people with Long COVID said was inadequate. While the Democratic presidential nominee cited that she helped recognize Long COVID as a disability under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), the ADA only provides protection for people requesting accommodations and does not apply to benefits programs. Many criticized her for failing to answer the question or offer any immediate plans or policies that would expedite SSDI cases, fund Long COVID research, or prevent more cases of the disease.

A new National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report on Long COVID as a disability, which we covered earlier this year, will allegedly be used by the Social Security Administrion (SSA) to improve their processes for Long COVID-related applications.

Mother Jones reporterJullia Métraux wrote about Martha’s question and Harris’s response today, pointing out that over 30,000 people died on waiting lists for SSDI decisions in the fiscal year 2023.

The Sick Times and The 19th reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on how the campaign will recognize and address Long COVID response but did not receive a response.

[orchidvioletindigo]

Speaking of attacks to U.S. welfare, the Social Security Administration is talking about cutting off phone services and requiring massively more in-person visits by applicants and recipients while also firing a bunch of staff and shutting down offices. Wait times for in-person SSA appointments already average over a month. My local office is only open 9-4 on weekdays and closed on weekends. Some folks' closest offices are over 100 miles away. A lot of people who need social security benefits are too disabled to travel.

[mariacallous]

For decades, new parents across the United States have been able to check a box on hospital forms in order to request Social Security numbers for their newborns.

That’s no longer the case in Maine, where parents will have to visit a Social Security field office thanks to a shocking move by President Donald Trump’s administration.

A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services told HuffPost on Thursday that the Social Security Administration said it had canceled two contracts with Maine’s vital statistics program that support Social Security’s electronic “enumeration at birth�� program.

“As a result of SSA’s contract termination, effective immediately, Maine hospitals are no longer able to enroll newborns into Social Security at the time of birth so parents will now need to visit their local Social Security office to apply in-person for their child’s Social Security Number,” the Maine DHHS spokesperson said in an email.

No justification has been given for the change, which was first reported by the Portland Press Herald. The Social Security Administration and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from HuffPost.

It’s likely the contracts were canceled at the direction of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” service, which has ripped through the federal government in search of savings. Leeland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, recently told senior agency staff this week they had to let DOGE run amok.

“DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to notes of the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.”

Dudek previously announced the SSA would undergo a “massive” reorganization with significant job cuts. Martin O’Malley, who led the agency under former President Joe Biden, told HuffPost this week the cuts to the agency could cause it to miss benefit payments to millions of people at some point; more than 50 million seniors rely on Social Security’s retirement insurance program.

The Social Security Administration rolled out enumeration at birth in the late 1980s, allowing parents only to check a box on state birth forms at the hospital to get their newborn a Social Security number. The program has been available in all 50 states since 1997, and 99% of people now get their Social Security numbers that way, according to the Social Security Administration.

Parents typically need Social Security numbers for their children in order to obtain medical coverage, open a bank account or obtain government services. A pamphlet on the Social Security Administration’s website explains the simple process.

“When you complete the application for your baby’s birth certificate, you will be asked whether you want to apply for an SSN for your baby,” the pamphlet says. “If you say ‘yes,’ you will be asked to provide both parents’ SSNs. If you don’t know both parents’ SSNs, you still can apply for your child’s SSN.”

Since taking office in January, Trump has empowered Musk, the world’s richest man, to try to slash federal bureaucracies and fire workers. Musk’s team has targeted government contracts that Musk has described as wasteful.

It’s not clear if Musk’s young DOGE deputies thought the SSA contracts with Maine’s government were wasteful, or if they were canceled by accident. Musk has admitted making mistakes; the DOGE website has repeatedly posted incorrect information about money saved from canceled contracts.

The DOGE “wall of receipts” says it canceled six “enumeration at birth contracts” between the Social Security administration and five states, plus the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. Maine does not appear to be on the list, however.

The DOGE website suggests Musk’s team has been trying to cancel the contracts partially ― only to the extent they result in the collection of race and ethnicity information, which DOGE considers an example of “DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion. The form reflecting the termination of an enumeration contract in Arizona, for instance, says, “Partial termination of the Race and Ethnicity (RE) records requirement.” The DOGE site says, “Only the DEI values are included” in the dollar amount saved.

Trump has also feuded with Maine’s governor for refusing to play along with Trump’s directive to disallow transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, told Trump she would “see you in court” over the girls’ sports directive during a recent meeting between governors and the president in Washington, D.C. Trump then threatened to withhold all federal funding from Maine.

[thornsent]

today I learned that my disability 'lawyer' is not actually a lawyer but a former police sarg who inherited her father's business. the business is an office that, again, is not a lawyer like I had been led to believe, but basically anyone can be trained in to 'assist' people in the disability application/trial process and then the SSA pays those people directly. it makes nearly 4 million dollars per year by doing this.

[namistrella]

Please pay close attention to the language used to talk about public service workers and civil servants in the coming days.

There is (understandably) a lot of anger and frustration felt by people who have been left behind, ignored, and swept aside by bureaucratic processes limiting access to benefits and aid. SSA has notoriously denied most first disability benefits applications, FEMA has left people without housing after disasters for far too long, there's red tape everywhere and it's harmful first and foremost to people without the time and resources (money, health) to navigate the systems. This is all true.

BUT. (And this is the important part of this post.) The new administration is, purposely, leveraging those feelings to get public support for gutting those systems and programs from the inside out. The truth is that we need these programs, and we need the everyday people who work to deliver them. We can't afford to vilify them.

Pay attention to the language in the new executive orders, such as:

"Return to Work" (as if everyday public servants have not been breaking their backs trying to get passports processed, job offers sent, and critical grants awarded, whether or not they do some of that work from home or in a too-small, poorly maintained office)

"Improving Accountability" (as if agency heads are all corrupt or something, rather than just being people who the new administration is afraid will choose to be accountable to their conscience rather than accountable to King Trump)

Yeah, yeah, every office will have some bad managers, some underperforming employees, and bad agency leadership once in a while. This is NORMAL. Literally look at ANY office, private sector or public sector or academia or whatever. Rank and file government employees are not inherently evil, or lazy, or entitled, any more than the rest of the workforce.

And in fact, government employee pay has fallen far behind inflation while the benefits have been slowly stripped away over the last decade or two (pensions cost more and pay less; healthcare options are expensive and don't cover as much as some other private plans; annual raises are a joke and barely even cover the rise in insurance premiums let alone housing).

By and large, the people working in those day to day public service positions care about the mission of their agency, and helping people, because you kind of have to at some level in order to sacrifice higher pay for literally the same work. The ONE concrete advantage of a government job over industry is the stability... But the Trump administration is fighting tooth and nail to get rid of that so they can fire large swathes of the workforce and shut down public service programs.

If they can't fire everyone, they'll start by getting as many as they possibly can to quit.

Stoking public anger at civil servants is one of the tactics they are using to put the pressure on and get people to leave. Many federal workers are already scared to talk about where they work because of fear of harassment. Republican leaders encourage this shit. Why would anyone want to stay in a job they're underpaid, underappreciated, and now being publicly vilified for? A few might, for the mission; others will decide their safety is more important, or that they can't sacrifice any more.

You might think, why do we care if a few gov employees quit when there's so many of them? Well, most government programs are ALREADY severely understaffed. We're ALREADY going to have an even harder time accessing services and programs when people inevitably quit and program funding gets shut down.

We need these workers to stay. We need them to be there busting their asses over the next months to get important things processed before the option is taken away. We need them to stand up to Trump's political cronies and hold the line and drag their feet when told to implement harmful policies. We need them to buy us time to vote in 2026 and save some of the programs that serve our most vulnerable populations. No, the programs aren't perfect, but that doesn't justify sitting back and letting Trump completely gut them!

Take some time to thank a public servant in the next weeks. We need them more than most of us realize, and we can't afford to let Trump's propaganda make us blame the people standing between his policies, and us.

[sab-cat]

March 18, 2025

Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s “my Social Security” online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.

The change will apply to new Social Security applicants and existing recipients who want to change their direct deposit information.

Retiree advocates warn that the change will negatively impact older Americans in rural areas, including those with disabilities, mobility limitations, those who live far from SSA offices and have limited internet access.

The plan also comes as the agency plans to shutter dozens of Social Security offices throughout the country and has already laid out plans to lay off thousands of workers.

[nowforthefunpart]

Easing into Retirement

So this is my first day in semi-retirement. Last week was my last full time week and I'm entering a six-week part-time schedule my employer and I agreed to as a transition period. I'll be off Fridays and Mondays, with 20 hours spread over the remaining three days. I'm not sure how I'll like this part-time schedule, but I can adjust it if I don't like it. Regardless, I'll be finished at the end of March and I can get through anything for six weeks.

Came home Friday to this lovely little retirement surprise from our next door neighbors:

I was slightly concerned this morning because I tried applying for Medicare this morning online and the Medicare (and SSA) websites were not working. I worried that that POS Musk and his toadies were rooting around in there, but I was able finally to submit my application.

Otherwise it's a beautifully sunny but frigid day out today - I don't think we'll get above zero this afternoon, but I see there are 40's in the forecast for a week from today so I think this arctic weather's days are numbered. 40 is going to feel tropical - one of the benefits of multiple days below zero!

[wittyworm]

Hey everyone! Long time no update

A LOT has happened since the last update. Back on March 6th, Shorty was admitted to the hospital, taken by ambulance. He had been passed out for several days on the floor unable to move. Lungs and limbs fulled with fluid. Fast forward to now, May 18, 2024, after about a month in the hospital and another month in physical therapy, he is able to walk again on his own! and the swelling in his legs has gone down significantly. But that’s not where the update ends. Because there’s still a lot we need to get set in place. 
He was able to get all of that much needed medical attention because we finally got him set up with a GOOD health insurance policy and were able to go to the Social Security Administration and set up his direct deposit to a bank that only him and I have access to. Everything seemed to be falling in place, but then he stopped receiving his social security deposit. He received a letter in the mail claiming that the direct deposit information we had just went and got set up again, had been changed on the 3rd of May, about 2 weeks ago. Neither he nor I understand why he would be getting a letter from the SSA like this, since we had the direct deposit set up to a new bank in February, that only he and I have access to. I’m thinking identity theft or something?

I’m not sure but, now that he is out of rehab, he is back at a motel. We’ve been asking around Davenport if anyone is looking for a potential roommate and recently just visited the house of a very kind gentleman renting out a room for $700 a month. Super ideal if we can get the situation with his Social Security deposit figured out (motels are way too pricey, even the crappy ones!).

The problem is, I do not have a car, though I am able to use my mother’s on Friday and the weekends when she is not at work, I am sort of at my limit with what I am able to do to help anymore. I had to leave my job due to multiple health issues, and though I have applied to many different jobs at this point, actually going in to each place and asking in person, I am having no luck, especially with no car, and only a bike with my declining health. I’m just not sure what to do. I am remaining hopeful.

Before we learned about the new situation with the Social Security Administration, Shorty had very generously offered me $500 to go toward the van I was trying to get. Not sure how to thank him enough for that. It’s now in my savings and I am going to keep trying to make and sell art and do odd jobs until I hear a response from any of the applications. Fingers crossed.

if yall wanna help me out i still have my patreon and kofi and a bunch of prints available. just lmk

[is-this-fascism]

I’m really, really sorry to have to tell you this, but you will not get SSDI in a matter of months. Not only is that incredibly rare and only for the extreme cases, but the SSA is backed up to Hell because of covid.

I applied BEFORE COVID and my case is still in limbo. I’m on my third appeal. It will have been 5 years since I applied come this August. I have not worked a single day and my permanent condition has worsened and they are still giving me the runaround.

I’m not trying to scare you or discourage you—absolutely apply, but do it with a disability attorney this time. They work on contingency only, and will only take money from the backpay the government will give you once you’re approved (backdated to the date of application). They are probably the only people who can navigate the purposefully-confusing forms and deadlines and expectations and I have never heard of a case being approved without an attorney attached.

In the meantime… buckle up. Make contingency plans. Be prepared for this to be years of brutal survival before you make it out to the other side.

I wish you the best of luck. Hang in there. It is just going to be a longer period than you initially expected 🧡

i'm at a similar timeframe as you, and i think the main issue has been the lack of medical records since i've been going into the process completely without those. apparently the SSA wants to know ive been in treatment with no improvements for at least a year, and if i can prove that i'll be much more likely to get approved.

i also have a case manager helping me with the paperwork side of it, and we're discussing getting a lawyer for me. i'm going to really need all the backpay i can get, so that's going to be a last resort.

of course i'm trying to be hopeful and generous with my estimates because while im confident i will eventually get approved, i'm genuinely worried the wait will kill me. so, maybe i live in a bit of a fantasy to keep me going. that said, i don't think it's that unrealistic to think this could be the one

my only contingency is hoping people are generous enough to support me while i wait, because i truly have no other options.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration (SSA) enacted a new policy that could impose massive demands on the agency's overburdened network of field offices, according to an internal SSA message obtained by Popular Information. Although the new policy will impact millions annually, it was not publicly announced. "The havoc and destruction they’re causing is no doubt going to break the agency and hurt the public," an SSA source familiar with the new policy said.

Each year, the SSA automatically issues millions of Social Security numbers and cards to non-citizens granted work authorizations as part of an agreement between the SSA and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The agreement, known as Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE), benefits both the work-authorized non-citizens, who receive their cards in the mail as part of the application process, and the government, which does not need to spend time and money processing separate applications for millions of Social Security numbers. In the 2024 fiscal year, there were over 3.24 million initial Employment Authorization Documents approved by USCIS. In the absence of the EBE program, everyone granted work authorization will be required to visit a Social Security field office to obtain a new Social Security number and card.

The SSA message, sent March 19, states that the EBE program for "noncitizens granted work authorization" and "newly naturalized U.S. citizens" has been "temporarily" frozen. It is unknown how long the freeze will be in place or if it will ever be lifted. Even though the EBE program has been in place for years, people with new or pending work authorization applications have not been informed. Although staff was instructed to implement the new policy immediately, there were no public communications about the change. As part of the USCIS work authorization form, applicants are told SSA will issue them a Social Security card upon approval. Currently, people who receive approval for work authorization likely believe that their Social Security number and card are being processed and that the card will soon be in the mail. But this is not happening. Should the freeze remain in place for more than a few days, 60,000 to 75,000 additional people per week will need to visit a field station to obtain a Social Security number, according to the SSA source. The internal SSA message provided no rationale for the change. The SSA has also frozen the EBE program for newly naturalized citizens. Most of those individuals have already been issued a Social Security number. However, the EBE program also allowed newly naturalized citizens to process a name change and update their citizenship status without visiting an SSA field office. (Individuals granted permanent residence status are also covered under the EBE program but were excluded from the freeze.) In response to a request for comment, the SSA press office sent Popular Information the following statement: "We are aware. We are monitoring it closely. And we will provide an update as appropriate." The potential flood of new in-person visits comes as the SSA imposes another change, first reported by Popular Information on Monday, that will require millions of elderly and disabled people to travel to a field office. That policy will require people making new benefit claims to verify their ID through the internet or at a field office. Since the internet is not an option for many elderly or disabled people, the SSA estimates it will require an additional 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors per week to SSA's offices to implement the policy. An internal memo describing the impact of the policy, obtained by Popular Information, predicted "service disruption," "operational strain," and "budget shortfalls" once the policy went into effect.

Popular Information has a report on a key policy shift that could massively overwhelm Social Security Administration (SSA) offices that are already overwhelmed as it is: the freezing of Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE) issued to non-citizens granted work authorizations.

[beardedmrbean]

The implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA), signed into law on January 5, has sparked concerns over delays in benefit adjustments. Representative Clay Higgins is urging the Social Security Administration (SSA) to expedite the process, citing the immediate needs of millions affected by the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO).

Why It Matters

The SSFA eliminates WEP and GPO, provisions that previously reduced or eliminated Social Security benefits for certain public sector workers. The repeal affects over 3.2 million retirees, including teachers, firefighters and law enforcement personnel, who are now set to receive increased benefits.

However, the SSA estimates it could take over a year to process all retroactive payments, a timeline that has drawn criticism from lawmakers and beneficiaries alike.

Higgins has taken a leading role in demanding a more immediate response. In a letter to acting SSA commissioner Michelle King, he described the current timeline as "an unacceptable way to treat our elders" and urged the SSA to reallocate resources to ensure swift implementation.

What To Know

The SSA is currently in the process of adjusting benefits but has yet to provide a firm date for full implementation.

The law requires recalculating benefits for millions of individuals who were previously affected by WEP and GPO, a process that involves extensive review of historical earnings records, pension information and eligibility criteria. The SSA has acknowledged that manual processing will be necessary for many cases, adding to the complexity and time required.

There are also broader implications for retirees who have yet to apply for benefits due to prior restrictions under WEP and GPO. With those provisions eliminated, eligible individuals who never filed for benefits must now submit new applications, which will further add to the administrative burden. Those who act swiftly may receive their retroactive benefits sooner than those who delay their filings.

Despite these challenges, the SSA has committed to providing regular updates and guidance on the implementation process. Public awareness efforts, including outreach through the SSA's website and direct communications, are expected to help beneficiaries navigate the transition more effectively. However, with no firm timeline for completion, concerns remain over whether the agency will be able to meet expectations for timely benefit adjustments.

What People Are Saying

Representative Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, said in a letter: "Those who have suffered under the failures of WEP and GPO do not have the time to wait a year or more until they start seeing changes to their benefits."

The Social Security Administration stated on its government website: "SSA expects that it could take more than one year to adjust benefits and pay all retroactive benefits."

Thomas Hager, Social Security analyst, said in an article for Forbes: "The reason you need to file now is to establish your filing date. Social Security calls this a protective filing date. If benefits are made retroactive, you want to make sure you receive benefits from the earliest date."

What's Next

Pressure from lawmakers like Higgins may push the SSA to accelerate its timeline, though the agency has yet to commit to any changes. As the SSA works through its backlog, beneficiaries are encouraged to monitor updates and ensure their information is current to prevent delays in receiving payments.

[mariacallous]

Operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are building a master database at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that could track and surveil undocumented immigrants, two sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED.

DOGE is knitting together immigration databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies including the Social Security Administration (SSA), as well as voting records, sources say. This, experts tell WIRED, could create a system that could later be searched to identify and surveil immigrants.

The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations for citizens, certified foreign workers, and undocumented immigrants.

A United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) data lake, or centralized repository, existed at DHS prior to DOGE that included data related to immigration cases, like requests for benefits, supporting evidence in immigration cases, and whether an application has been received and is pending, approved, or denied. Since at least mid-March, however, DOGE has been uploading mass amounts of data to this preexisting USCIS data lake, including data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), SSA, and voting data from Pennsylvania and Florida, two DHS sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED.

“They are trying to amass a huge amount of data,” a senior DHS official tells WIRED. “It has nothing to do with finding fraud or wasteful spending … They are already cross-referencing immigration with SSA and IRS as well as voter data.”

Since president Donald Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year, WIRED and other outlets have reported extensively on DOGE’s attempts to gain unprecedented access to government data, but until recently little has been publicly known about the purpose of such requests or how they would be processed. Reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post has made clear that one aim is to cross-reference datasets and leverage access to sensitive SSA systems to effectively cut immigrants off from participating in the economy, which the administration hopes would force them to leave the county. The scope of DOGE’s efforts to support the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown appear to be far broader than this, though. Among other things, it seems to involve centralizing immigrant-related data from across the government to surveil, geolocate, and track targeted immigrants in near real time.

DHS and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DOGE’s collection of personal data on immigrants around the US has dovetailed with the Trump administration’s continued immigration crackdown. “Our administration will not rest until every single violent illegal alien is removed from our country,” Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Gerald Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia and ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the SSA office of the inspector general stating that representatives have spoken with an agency whistleblower who has warned them that DOGE was building a “master database” containing SSA, IRS, and HHS data.

“The committee is in possession of multiple verifiable reports showing that DOGE has exfiltrated sensitive government data across agencies for unknown purposes,” a senior oversight committee aide claims to WIRED. “Also concerning, a pattern of technical malfeasance has emerged, showing these DOGE staffers are not abiding by our nation’s privacy and cybersecurity laws and their actions are more in line with tactics used by adversaries waging an attack on US government systems. They are using excessive and unprecedented system access to intentionally cover their tracks and avoid oversight so they can creep on Americans’ data from the shadows.”

“There's a reason these systems are siloed,” says Victoria Noble, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “When you put all of an agency's data into a central repository that everyone within an agency or even other agencies can access, you end up dramatically increasing the risk that this information will be accessed by people who don't need it and are using it for improper reasons or repressive goals, to weaponize the information, use it against people they dislike, dissidents, surveil immigrants or other groups.”

One of DOGE’s primary hurdles to creating a searchable data lake has been obtaining access to agency data. Even within an agency like DHS, there are several disparate pools of data across ICE, USCIS, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Though some access is shared, particularly for law enforcement purposes, these pools have not historically been commingled by default because the data is only meant to be used for specific purposes, experts tell WIRED. ICE and HSI, for instance, are law enforcement bodies and sometimes need court orders to access an individual's information for criminal investigations, whereas USCIS collects sensitive information as part of the regular course of issuing visas and green cards.

DOGE operatives Edward Coristine, Kyle Schutt, Aram Moghaddassi, and Payton Rehling have already been granted access to systems at USCIS, FedScoop reported earlier this month. The USCIS databases contain information on refugees and asylum seekers and possibly data on green card holders, naturalized US citizens, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, a DHS source familiar tells WIRED.

DOGE wants to upload information to the data lake from myUSCIS, the online portal where immigrants can file petitions, communicate with USCIS, view their application history, and respond to requests for evidence supporting their case, two DHS sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED. In combination with IP address information from immigrants that sources tell WIRED that DOGE also wants, this data could be used to aid in geolocating undocumented immigrants, experts say.

Voting data, at least from Pennsylvania and Florida, appears to also have also been uploaded to the USCIS data lake. In the case of Pennsylvania, two DHS sources tell WIRED that it is being joined with biometric data from USCIS’s Customer Profile Management System, identified on the DHS’s website as a “person-centric repository of biometric and associated biographic information provided by applicants, petitioners, requestors, and beneficiaries” who have been “issued a secure card or travel document identifying the receipt of an immigration benefit.”

“DHS, for good reason, has always been very careful about sharing data,” says a former DHS staff member who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “Seeing this change is very jarring. The systemization of it all is what gets scary, in my opinion, because it could allow the government to go after real or perceived enemies or ‘aliens; ‘enemy aliens.’”

While government agencies frequently share data, this process is documented and limited to specific purposes, according to experts. Still, the consolidation appears to have administration buy-in: On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order requiring all federal agencies to facilitate “both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records.” DOGE officials and Trump administration agency leaders have also suggested centralizing all government data into one single repository. “As you think about the future of AI, in order to think about using any of these tools at scale, we gotta get our data in one place," General Services Administration acting administrator Stephen Ehikian said in a town hall meeting on March 20. In an interview with Fox News in March, Airbnb cofounder and DOGE member Joe Gebbia asserted that this kind of data sharing would create an “Apple-like store experience” of government services.

According to the former staffer, it was historically “extremely hard” to get access to data that DHS already owned across its different departments. A combined data lake would “represent significant departure in data norms and policies.” But, they say, “it’s easier to do this with data that DHS controls” than to try to combine it with sensitive data from other agencies, because accessing data from other agencies can have even more barriers.

That hasn’t stopped DOGE operatives from spending the last few months requesting access to immigration information that was, until recently, siloed across different government agencies. According to documents filed in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO v. Social Security Administration lawsuit on March 15, members of DOGE who were stationed at SSA requested access to the USCIS database, SAVE, a system for local and state governments, as well as the federal government, to verify a person’s immigration status.

According to two DHS sources with direct knowledge, the SSA data was uploaded to the USCIS system on March 24, only nine days after DOGE received access to SSA’s sensitive government data systems. An SSA source tells WIRED that the types of information are consistent with the agency's Numident database, which is the file of information contained in a social security number application. The Numident record would include a person’s social security number, full names, birthdates, citizenship, race, ethnicity, sex, mother’s maiden name, an alien number, and more.

Oversight for the protection of this data also appears to now be more limited. In March, DHS announced cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, all key offices that were significant guards against misuse of data. “We didn't make a move in the data world without talking to the CRCL,” says the former DHS employee.

CRCL, which investigates possible rights abuses by DHS and whose creation was mandated by Congress, had been a particular target of DOGE. According to ProPublica, in a February meeting with the CRCL team, Schutt said, “This whole program sounds like money laundering.”

Schutt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk loyalists and DOGE operatives have spoken at length about parsing government data to find instances of supposed illegal immigration. Antonio Gracias, who according to Politico is leading DOGE’s “immigration task force,” told Fox and Friends that DOGE was looking at voter data as it relates to undocumented immigrants. “Just because we were curious, we then looked to see if they were on the voter rolls,” he said. “And we found in a handful of cooperative states that there were thousands of them on the voter rolls and that many of them had voted.” (Very few noncitizens voted in the 2024 election, and naturalized immigrants were more likely to vote Republican.) Gracias is also part of the DOGE team at SSA and founded the investment firm Valor Equity Partners. He also worked with Musk for many years at Tesla and helped the centibillionaire take the company public.

“As part of their fixation on this conspiracy theory that undocumented people are voting, they're also pulling in tens of thousands, millions of US citizens who did nothing more than vote or file for Social Security benefits,” Cody Venzke, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union focused on privacy and surveillance, tells WIRED. “It's a massive dragnet that's going to have all sorts of downstream consequences for not just undocumented people but US citizens and people who are entitled to be here as well.”

Over the past few weeks, DOGE leadership within the IRS have orchestrated a “hackathon” aimed at plotting out a “mega API” allowing privileged users to view all agency data from a central access point. Sources tell WIRED the project will likely be hosted on Foundry, software developed by Palantir, a company cofounded by Musk ally and billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. An API is an application programming interface that allows different software systems to exchange data. While the Treasury Department has denied the existence of a contract for this work, IRS engineers were invited to another three-day “training and building session” on the project located at Palantir’s Georgetown offices in Washington, DC, this week, according to a document viewed by WIRED.

“Building it out as a series of APIs they can connect to is more feasible and quicker than putting all the data in a single place, which is probably what they really want,” one SSA source tells WIRED.

On April 5, DHS struck an agreement with the IRS to use tax data to search for more than seven million migrants working and living in the US. ICE has also recently paid Palantir millions of dollars to update and modify an ICE database focused on tracking down immigrants, 404 Media reported.

Multiple current and former government IT sources tell WIRED that it would be easy to connect the IRS’s Palantir system with the ICE system at DHS, allowing users to query data from both systems simultaneously. A system like the one being created at the IRS with Palantir could enable near-instantaneous access to tax information for use by DHS and immigration enforcement. It could also be leveraged to share and query data from different agencies as well, including immigration data from DHS. Other DHS sub-agencies, like USCIS, use Databricks software to organize and search its data, but these could be connected to outside Foundry instances simply as well, experts say. Last month, Palantir and Databricks struck a deal making the two software platforms more interoperable.

“I think it's hard to overstate what a significant departure this is and the reshaping of longstanding norms and expectations that people have about what the government does with their data,” says Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology, who noted that agencies trying to match different datasets can also lead to errors. “You have false positives and you have false negatives. But in this case, you know, a false positive where you're saying someone should be targeted for deportation.”

Mistakes in the context of immigration can have devastating consequences: In March, authorities arrested and deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, due to, the Trump administration says, “an administrative error.” Still, the administration has refused to bring Abrego Garcia back, defying a Supreme Court ruling.

“The ultimate concern is a panopticon of a single federal database with everything that the government knows about every single person in this country,” Venzke says. “What we are seeing is likely the first step in creating that centralized dossier on everyone in this country.”

[follow-up-news]

The Social Security Administration on Monday said it is making a major change that could help more people qualify for disability benefits.  The change involves a practice used by the program to determine whether a disability applicant could, in fact, find another job based on their abilities, which could result in a rejection of benefits. To make that determination, the SSA relies on a jobs database to suss out if there are any jobs the applicant can still perform. But critics have called the database unfair and flawed, given that it was last updated in 1977 and includes dozens obsolete occupations. Those occupations include reptile farmer, railroad telegrapher and watch repairer — jobs SSA said will now be stricken from the database. The decision comes after the Washington Post highlighted the case of a disability applicant who had worked as an electrician, but was rejected after a judge determined he could find a job as a nut sorter, a dowel inspector or an egg processor, all occupations that effectively no longer exist. "It makes sense to identify occupations that now exist in very limited numbers in the national economy," said Martin O'Malley, commissioner of Social Security, said in a statement. "By making this update, our decision-makers will no longer cite these jobs when denying a disability application." The changes will apply to both the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.

[insipid-drivel]

SSI & SSDI: What are they, who qualifies, and how to apply?

Prefacing this with "For USAmericans only" because our system is a special kind of fucked up. I'm sorry to say that this may not apply to people that are undocumented, either. The feds suck that way and I really wish life was easier for all of us. This is also gonna be a very long post.

I see a lot of USAmerican tumblr users in dire straights trying to scrape by with art auctions, selling homemade stuff, or straight-up begging (no shame intended; poverty fucking sucks and our system is broken), that really seem to qualify for the same benefits that I have, but underutilize or otherwise don't know they can apply. This post is my attempt to explain the differences between our federal benefits programs, who can qualify, and what you need to do to apply in the gentlest, most hand-holding way I can for those of you feeling daunted or scared.

First off:

1: What's the difference between SSI and SSDI? SSI is short for "Social Security Income", and SSDI is just the same thing but with "Disability" thrown in. SSI pays into benefits for elder care and retired seniors, but what a lot of USAmericans don't realize is that you can apply for SSI at any time if you are disabled and have never had a job because of it. SSI isn't the same as a 401k or a retirement plan through your bank/finance manager. SSI is the federal system through which people who, either through age or disability, cannot work receive federal compensation through tax dollars. I got approved when I was 30 due to the severity of my disabilities when the average American doesn't usually have to worry about SSI until they're nearing retirement age. SSI is also the system that people who have never been able to work due to being disabled can apply for life-long benefits through.

SSDI is specifically for the benefit of people who have worked before, but have become too disabled to keep working for whatever reason. I'm personally, actually, on SSI because I've never been able to work due to my disabilities and have been living with them since very early childhood. I had odd jobs at stables working with horses in my teens, but no paystubs to prove it since it was all in cash. If you've never worked a formal job and are too disabled to work now, you want SSI. If you've been able to work before and can prove it through pay stubs/taxes/employment contracts but are now too disabled to, you want SSDI.

2: How do I know if I qualify? By getting tired of struggling to work because of your disability and giving the process a real look. Are you making less money than if you were working a barely minimum-wage part-time job and still struggling with Being Okay? Then you're probably, to some degree, legally disabled and entitled to help. The threshold to apply for assistance is surprisingly low considering how much I've seen barely-hanging-in-there tumblr users suffering from their respective chronic issues toughing it out with nothing but duct tape, ibuprofen, and etsy shops, and SS(D)I programs really take a lot of care to pay attention to your psychological welfare when you have to work as well as your physical welfare when defining what "disabled" really means.

You can even call the SSA help line, reach an agent, describe your situation, and ask if it sounds like you should pursue an application and how to start at absolutely no cost and with no commitment; these are programs you have a legal right to access and apply for, and calling is completely free - there are no consultation fees, ever. A lot of Social Security agents WANT to help people get on benefits when they need them, but it's actually harder to get approved if you try to do the entire process digitally vs. keeping in contact over the phone with a real human.

While you can apply and get approved with 0 contact necessary up until a certain point with applying for federal benefits, you are much more likely to get denied and have to appeal multiple times, miss documents that you didn't notice you needed to have ready, or not hear about other benefit programs or assistance that you can simultaneously be applying for. Even if you're scared of phones, you want a good agent to advocate for you and advise you when it comes to SSI/SSDI.

For the record, it's NORMAL to be denied at least once, if not several times when you apply, and does not mean that you aren't disabled, or aren't "disabled enough". This is a tactic intentionally used by the SSA to filter out those "truly" in need from those that aren't by using the logic "truly desperate people won't quit applying while people with options will". It's bullshit, classist, ableist, and takes advantage of people with anxiety and social phobias, but that's the way it's been built to be, so you MUST be persistent and keep appealing if you get denied. There are no limits to how many times you can appeal your case when it comes to SS(D)I. Some people can be stuck with being denied and appealing for years, which is why I strongly advise keeping the names and contact information of SSA agents and resources you've been in contact with for help. Once you get people to see you as a person rather than an applicant, you'll start getting a lot more good advice and tips for how to get approved faster and even how to maximize your monthly benefit rates.

If you're struggling to hold down your life in a stable way because of having one or more disabilities that interfere with a regular, "average" person's expected work day (9-5, usually commuting at least a little by car, usually working with other people/customers, spending at least some prolonged times on your feet or sitting at a desk/computer), you may already qualify for more benefits than you're aware of. There are absolutely no legal ramifications for applying for SSI or SSDI and getting turned down, or applying multiple times. It's not a "three strikes and you're out" kind of deal. You will not be arrested or fined for applying or inquiring about what you're entitled to from our federal government. Go to the official Social Security Administration website and poke around! However, my protip is to first read what benefits are available, and then CALL THEIR HELP LINE DIRECTLY to talk to an actual human being. The person who answers the phone can listen to you describe your circumstances precisely and guide you through applying, as well as inform you of any programs you may not know about that you can apply for simultaneously.

My SSA rep was a champion that got me through the process while also dropping hints about how to write and describe my situation in the forms I had to fill out. Because I live with my family, I don't have to pay rent, but my representative loudly asked, "YOU PAY RENT, RIGHT?" as a heavy-handed way of telling me, "I can get you more in your paycheck if you at least say you're paying rent," which got me an additional $300 added to my monthly checks now. I actually do pay that $300 in rent now, because it makes me feel better and helps my family with other expenses, including a brand-new not-even-on-the-market-yet power chair that my mom bought for me recently so I don't have to limp along with a cane anymore.

3: How do I apply?

Go to http://www.ssa.gov/ and research based upon your situation (if you've ever worked before or not). I got so overwhelmed by the online application process that my mom, who does bureaucracy for a living, helped relieve a load of anxiety from me by filling out my paperwork for me as well as she could (she's legally my Power of Attorney and so having her handle my paperwork was totally fine) and then calling their help-line.

Generally, the hardest part about applying is the waiting and resisting becoming discouraged, because Social Security is a slow ass process, and you're lucky if you hear back within several months of an application for an update, much less approval. However, depending on your situation, you may be required to go to an SSA-approved doctor or therapist to review your records and verify that you're still as disabled as you were when you first started your application as a last step before your application process is officially complete. For me, all I had to do was answer a therapist's questions about what my quality of life was like (my answer was "What quality of life?" because I was That Miserable), how my mobility was, how well I functioned around strangers and peers, what chronic pain/problems I dealt with, how long I could stand to be on my feet, and generally gave a rundown of what I could and couldn't handle about an "average" person's daily life and typical expected work load in your stereotypical office or retail setting.

The most important thing about applying is getting the application started as early as possible and making contact with an actual SSA representative! Even if you never follow through with applying (again, you are not penalized if you drop out! You can pick up where you left off or start completely over at any time when you're applying for federal benefits like SSI), after you reach a certain point in being Acknowledged By SSA As An Applicant For Assistance, the clock starts. Your clock starts - and I mean that in a very, very good way.

Once the SSA receives your initial request for SSI or SSDI, they automatically begin calculating any and all back-pay THEY owe YOU when you get approved as long as you're still applying and appealing. For me, my first SSI check came in at almost $6,000, because it took me around 10 months or so after my initial application to get approved, and the absolute basest rate for SSI benefits at that time was about $600/mo. I now make a little under $1k/mo with SSI alone, with my payments increasing automatically with inflation or if a single billionaire bothered to pay any taxes this year. If a major financial problem occurs in my life, like if my mom were to suddenly want more rent, I can report it to the SSA and they'll compensate me for at least some of that increased rent.

SSI/SSDI is not going to make you rich or solve all of your financial issues, and you are not legally allowed to work without special permission and circumstances while receiving benefits, but it can help take some of the pressure off if you literally have no other way of getting financial help. Because they're both federal programs, you're able to receive SSI/SSDI benefits along with many of your state's local benefit programs, like state-funded insurance, welfare, and food stamps to further stretch your budget and help you financially.

Little things that helped me along the way:

I cried a lot. At first it was humiliating to feel my emotions drop out from under me in the middle of a conversation with an SSA rep, but when he heard me beginning to lose it and sob at how hard everything is all the time, he became even more helpful with my case. He was a very sweet man named Dennis from Georgia. The same went with anyone else I had to see or speak to; if I just broke down crying and showed my actual feelings of resentment and humiliation at being so broken down and disabled that I officially needed Federal Government Daddy's money, they'd be a lot more compassionate and helpful. Show your emotions. Be upset. Let the people you speak to know that you feel like crap because, in spite of all your years of trying and trying to Be A Normal Person, things haven't gotten any better and maybe have even gotten worse.

I spoke my truth. I had a lot of suicidal ideology going on when I started applying, and as difficult and scary as it was, admitting that I was feeling like I had no other way out or way to help my family not be burdened by me was through suicide. I said that I would rather be talking to a doctor about assisted suicide than talking to the person I was talking to about asking for basic federal assistance. The therapist I said that to was alarmed and heartbroken that I preferred the thoughts of suicide to the thoughts of pursuing SSI, and was very, very quick to reassure me that I wasn't a failure, and that she was there to see me and help me get what I needed now that I was asking for it. She praised me for telling the truth and being brave enough to keep applying and trying.

I let myself be symptomatic. No masking, no pain meds, nothing; when I had to deal with people assessing me for SSI (which weren't many, but the stakes to me were too high to try to mask even once), I went in exhausted, in pain, stinking from not showering because I was struggling, rushing to and from the bathroom with stress IBS, and very vocally in favor of dying rather than continuing to fuss around with paperwork. When the exhaustion and fatigue made me want to cry, I cried. When someone wanted to touch me - like to take my blood pressure at the doctor's - I allowed myself to jolt away and need to be asked if it was okay before I was touched by anyone. I allowed my Neurotypical Tolerance Level to reach 0, and to be the goddamn mess I really was inside, and still am.

I did not express optimism or hope. I made it clear that I was going through the motions because I "knew I was going to get denied anyway". I knew most people never get approved, and I was honest that I knew it and expected nothing but wasted time while I went through the application process as one final attempt to not be such a hindrance to the people around me.

That following October, I got a snail-mail letter in my mailbox congratulating me for being approved for SSI, and that if I was reading the letter and had not received my first payments, I would after a short time and was asked to call them if I didn't. It took about 10 months total to get through all of it once my mom teamed up with me to help me with the Official Process, and checked my bank account to find not only my very first payment sitting in my checking account, but the past 10 months' worth of payments I would've received if I'd already been on benefits. I used it to decorate my bedroom, which was so spare and empty it looked like nobody lived there, get new clothes I desperately needed (I was 30 and still relying on hand-me-down clothes and underwear from when I was a teenager), started paying my mom rent so I felt less like a leech and more like an investor in our family home, and am now in the process of getting a brand new power wheelchair, because my problems with walking and standing were what got me to start applying, and life has gotten better enough that I can now afford the mobility aids I need.