After Washington Post 6 March 2025 — "Due to a DOGE*-driven spending freeze on federal credit cards, some offices can’t pay phone bills, the employee said, while one office was forced last week to cancel three disability hearings because the staff could not use charge cards to pay for interpreters who speak foreign languages or American Sign Language. One claimant has a terminal illness, and another is in danger of losing their house, the employee said. No new hearings have been scheduled.

"Meanwhile, a DOGE-led campaign to cancel contracts deemed “wasteful” across the government is also hurting Social Security. The agency lost a contract that paid for medical experts to testify at disability hearings, the employee said, along with another contract for mold removal from offices.

"The elimination of the entire civil rights office is causing further chaos and uncertainty; the staff there was responsible not just for processing discrimination cases, but for obtaining office equipment for blind employees — accommodations that are required under federal disability law. No one has explained who will be taking over this type of work, employees said.

"As the agency prepares for a mandated return to in-office work, space constraints in some offices have left supervisors to consider assigning employees to work at desks in supply closets, the worker said.

“'It’s just chaos, people are terrified, and no one knows anything, including our supervisors,' the employee said.

"Another employee said they were briefed on a call last week in which managers received instructions to come up with cuts of half the agency’s staff and the same number of contractors by the end of March. Word of reductions on that scale spread throughout the agency, the employee said. In an internal announcement, Dudek said staff cuts of 50 percent were inaccurate, causing still more confusion.

"For his entire nearly 30-year career at SSA, one employee said, changes came slowly and were accompanied by a barrage of information explaining to staff exactly what was being altered and why. However, since DOGE took hold, changes have come so fast that they are impossible to follow, the employee said.

“'No one really knows what they’re doing, no one has answers, and at some point something is going to break.'

“'Morale is in the toilet, (one) employee said. 'We all know what DOGE wants to do, which is just break us, so they can privatize us.'"

* DOGE is the so-called Dept. of Government Efficiency created by Pres. Donald Trump and his major politcal donor-sidekick Elon Musk.

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