The Social Security Administration (SSA) is currently investigating recent incidents that have disrupted beneficiaries’ access to their online accounts, following a temporary outage of the portal.
According to a system notice distributed to SSA employees, the MySSA portal, which enables Social Security recipients to manage their benefits online, experienced a “full outage” on Monday morning.
Nicole Tiggemann, an SSA spokeswoman, stated that the agency is actively looking into the root cause of the incidents affecting the My Social Security portal. She clarified that while the website itself remained operational during these occurrences, some users may have encountered difficulties signing into their personal My Social Security accounts.
This outage is the latest in a series of system crashes that have become more frequent in recent weeks. The agency has been encouraging users to utilize online and in-person services in a bid to enhance efficiency and address alleged fraud, moving users away from telephone-based services.
The outage on Monday morning also impacted several other cloud and internal systems utilized by the agency.
The systems and databases of the Social Security Administration have become a focal point for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to identify waste and fraud within the federal bureaucracy. Musk’s team has sought access to Social Security numbers, names, as well as the birth and death dates of beneficiaries in the program.
As DOGE teams have integrated into the agency, the SSA has introduced measures to reduce fraud and improve efficiency. Over the weekend, the SSA launched a new feature allowing beneficiaries to upload documents and forms independently, without needing assistance from agency technicians.
DOGE has deployed at least 10 staffers to the Social Security Administration to identify waste; however, the agency’s data does not support claims of widespread fraud. An inspector general report from the previous year revealed that from 2015 through 2022, Social Security made an estimated $72 billion in improper payments, which accounts for less than 1% of the benefits paid.
(Note: This story was originally featured on Fortune.com)
