What Are DOGE’s Plans for the Social Security Administration?

When President Trump announced his intent to form his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), many people worried about what it would mean to federal program like Social Security. And with many federal jobs now on the line, it’s natural for the public to be concerned.

But DOGE’s plans aren’t to cut Social Security benefits. In fact, DOGE’s intervention could be crucial to preventing benefit cuts.

Trump says he won’t cut Social Security

President Trump pledged repeatedly during his campaign for office that he would not cut so much as a dollar from Social Security. And during his first term in office, he did not cut benefits, either.

Similarly, tasking DOGE with digging into Social Security is not a means of pushing benefit cuts. Rather, the point of DOGE is to cut wasteful government spending. And Social Security has been known to do plenty of that.

Case in point: In 2024, a report by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General found that between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, the program made nearly $72 billion in property payments. And the majority of those were overpayments. It’s things like this that DOGE is supposed to put a stop to.

DOGE’s involvement could actually help prevent benefit cuts

Anyone who’s familiar with Social Security is painfully aware that the program is at risk of having to cut benefits in about a decade’s time. That’s not necessarily due to the fact that it’s inefficiently run. Rather, it’s a matter of a shrinking labor force that will deny Social Security the payroll tax revenue it depends on to keep up with scheduled benefits.

DOGE’s actions won’t necessarily be able to prevent Social Security cuts. But DOGE’s job is to reduce (or, ideally, eliminate) wasteful spending within the Social Security Administration and other government agencies. And the more money it can save the program, the more it can help prevent benefit cuts — or, at the very least, push them off longer.

So far, in DOGE’s wake, there are reports of Social Security offices that are set to be shuttered. And some may worry that reducing staff and closing down offices will hurt seniors and others who depend on Social Security.

Although many actions related to Social Security, like claiming benefits, can be done online or over the phone, a good number of seniors rely on in-person interaction to get answers on Social Security and address issues as they come up. So it’s easy to see why reports of closing offices are worrisome.

But it may be that the Social Security offices on the chopping block are ones that don’t tend to see a lot of foot traffic. And it begs the question — it is worth spending the money on offices like these when Social Security very clearly needs all of the money it can get?

All told, it’s not an easy question to answer. An argument can be made for closing offices to save money versus keeping them open to make services and benefits more easily accessible to the people who need them the most. And complicating matters is that it’s unclear as to what additional measures DOGE may seek to implement in the context of Social Security.

But all told, it’s important to recognize that DOGE isn’t out to slash Social Security benefits. That’s the absolute opposite of what President Trump has promised to do, and any actions on DOGE’s part that negatively impact benefits would no doubt fuel an uproar.

That’s not something Trump wants on his hands. So there’s a good chance that if need be, he’ll do his part to keep DOGE in check.

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