Social Security Administration probes origin of website portal outage

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration said Tuesday that it is investigating the root cause of website outages that have affected the “my Social Security” portal where recipients access their benefits.

Notably, individuals who receive Supplemental Security Income, including disabled seniors and low-income adults and children, have reported receiving a notice that said they were “not receiving benefits.” The agency said that notice was a mistake.

Roughly 7.4 million seniors, adults and children receive SSI benefits, according to an internal 2023 report. It is unclear how many people received the mistaken message on their portal.

In a statement, the agency acknowledged “a couple of recent incidents” that affected Social Security and said they are under investigation. The agency said that during the brief disruptions, which averaged about 20 minutes each, the Social Security Administration’s website remained operational, though some people may have had an issue signing in to their “my Social Security” account.

The website has crashed several times over the past few weeks. They come as the Social Security Administration, under the leadership of acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, conducts a major overhaul of operations in an effort to clamp down on alleged fraud, which President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency claim is widespread.

The changes include mass employee layoffs and staff reductions, new limits on recipients’ phone line access and the closure of offices around the country. They have sparked furor among lawmakers, advocacy groups and program recipients, who say the Trump administration is placing unnecessary barriers in front of an already vulnerable population.

Most recently, the agency partially backtracked on a plan that would require all new and existing beneficiaries to travel to a Social Security field office to verify their identity.

The Social Security Administration said in March that people applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income who are not able to use agency’s online portal can complete their claim over the phone instead of in person. Other SSA applicants will still be required to verify their identities at a field office. The changes begin April 14.

Additionally, a lawsuit challenging DOGE access is ongoing in federal court. On March 20, Maryland federal judge Ellen Lipton Hollander issued an order blocking DOGE access from Social Security’s troves of data and said the DOGE team “is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion.”

Roughly 72.5 million people, including retirees and children, receive Social Security benefits.