In a new note sent to workers on Tuesday, the acting director of the Social Security Administration extensive slimming plans and efforts to implement artificial intelligence and acknowledged he made mistakes during his short tenure as head of the organization.
Leland Dudek took over the organization in mid-February after the organization’s past leadership resigned amid disagreements with Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Performance over exposure to SSA information. The organization is in charge of distributing tens of millions of Social Security profit checks to seniors and other people each month.
In one incident, Dudek overturned a law that would have required families in Maine to register their newborns with Social Security numbers at governmental offices as opposed to hospitals.
Dudek acknowledged that the company received” an exceptional level of media coverage, some of it real and deserved, while some of it has never been scientific and painted the agency in a very bad light.”
DOGE has recently altered the organization’s activities. The organization announced plans to cut up to 12 % of its workforce at a time when SSA’s personnel is at a 50-year small. It intends to close six of its ten regional offices, offering the entire staff early retirement and other incentives, including payments of up to$ 25, 000.
Dudek stated in the letter that buyouts had” successful control” as the agency sought to reduce its workforce by about 7, 000 workers.
Dudek claimed that 2,700 Social Security employees had signed up for the program, 2, 000 were deemed available, and more than 1, 400 had voluntarily separated from their employers.
According to Dudek, the organization is in a” great position to avoid relying on involuntary decreases in our workforce for this fiscal year.”” We will continue to evaluate our ability to serve the public and use techniques like change to meet need,” Dudek continued.
Dudek acknowledged that the labor numbers are nevertheless “in flux” on a visit with the media after on Tuesday.
Dudek addressed writers,” We’re trying to do the appropriate item to people the area appropriately.”
According to the commissioner,” there is a change from the previous administration to the current presidency. I want you to think that [ Martin ]O’Malley had good intentions and good soul,” but when you look at the judge’s budget, he was suggesting a$ 17 billion budget at the time. What you’re seeing is a necessary consequence of an ambitious commissioner because I’m staffed for a$ 14 billion budget,” Dudek said.
Dudek said he is still weighing the feasibility of cutting 12 percent of the workplace, despite plans to do so.
” I’m following the procedures and the rules I’ve committed following the law,” he said. Headquarters also shrinks, but that could mean there is a need for large in the field offices and for phone. It’s about sizing the agency properly so that we can achieve the best possible results for the public.
The acting director gave an action strategy for the agency over the course of the following three months in a memo from the agency that was distributed on Tuesday, including efforts to “improve customer service,” eliminate “fraud and waste,” and “optimize and equip” the workforce.
In addition, Dudek’s note mentioned intensifying anti-fraud efforts, “leading to the development of cutting-edge identity proofing techniques that enable the community to properly communicate with us digitally or over the phone.”
In an effort to reduce “fraud risks,” Dudek’s plan was revealed following information of a distinct inside SSA note from March 13 detailing a plan to force customers to report benefits in person at a field office as opposed to over the telephone.
Popular first reported on the request. The letter signed by acting assistant social protection commissioner Doris Diaz was published by Info, which provided screenshots of the memo.  ,
One SSA individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said,” This could possibly be devastating.” The Acting Commissioner has been advised by different deputy heads in memos that” this would cause a bottleneck in field offices and would cause a rapid spike in in-person requirements that existing staffing would be unable to tackle in a timely manner.”
The company plans to “augment administrative/technical writing” and use AI for online forms and names, according to an internal memo sent to workers on Tuesday. Additionally, the organization is “exploring ways to implement AI — in a safe, governed manner in accordance with OMB’s FedRAMP guidance — to streamline and improve call resolution.”
Next week, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Frank Bisignano, a financial tech executive who was chosen by President Donald Trump to lead the agency permanently.
