| | | EXCLUSIVE: Secret policy shift could overwhelm Social Security offices with millions of people |
On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration (SSA) enacted a new policy that could impose massive demands on the agency's overburdened network of field offices, according to an internal SSA message obtained by Popular Information. Although the new policy will impact millions annually, it was not publicly announced. "The havoc and destruction they’re causing is no doubt going to break the agency and hurt the public," an SSA source familiar with the new policy said.
Each year, the SSA automatically issues millions of Social Security numbers and cards to non-citizens granted work authorizations as part of an agreement between the SSA and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The agreement, known as Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE), benefits both the work-authorized non-citizens, who receive their cards in the mail as part of the application process, and the government, which does not need to spend time and money processing separate applications for millions of Social Security numbers. In the 2024 fiscal year, there were over 3.24 million initial Employment Authorization Documents approved by USCIS. In the absence of the EBE program, everyone granted work authorization will be required to visit a Social Security field office to obtain a new Social Security number and card.
The SSA message, sent March 19, states that the EBE program for "noncitizens granted work authorization" and "newly naturalized U.S. citizens" has been "temporarily" frozen. It is unknown how long the freeze will be in place or if it will ever be lifted.
Even though the EBE program has been in place for years, people with new or pending work authorization applications have not been informed. Although staff was instructed to implement the new policy immediately, there were no public communications about the change. As part of the USCIS work authorization form, applicants are told SSA will issue them a Social Security card upon approval.
Currently, people who receive approval for work authorization likely believe that their Social Security number and card are being processed and that the card will soon be in the mail. But this is not happening. Should the freeze remain in place for more than a few days, 60,000 to 75,000 additional people per week will need to visit a field station to obtain a Social Security number, according to the SSA source. The internal SSA message provided no rationale for the change.
The SSA has also frozen the EBE program for newly naturalized citizens. Most of those individuals have already been issued a Social Security number. However, the EBE program also allowed newly naturalized citizens to process a name change and update their citizenship status without visiting an SSA field office. (Individuals granted permanent residence status are also covered under the EBE program but were excluded from the freeze.)
In response to a request for comment, the SSA press office sent Popular Information the following statement: "We are aware. We are monitoring it closely. And we will provide an update as appropriate."
The potential flood of new in-person visits comes as the SSA imposes another change, first reported by Popular Information on Monday, that will require millions of elderly and disabled people to travel to a field office. That policy will require people making new benefit claims to verify their ID through the internet or at a field office. Since the internet is not an option for many elderly or disabled people, the SSA estimates it will require an additional 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors per week to SSA's offices to implement the policy. An internal memo describing the impact of the policy, obtained by Popular Information, predicted "service disruption," "operational strain," and "budget shortfalls" once the policy went into effect.
The SSA formally announced the new ID verficiation policy in a press release on Tuesday afternoon. The Acting Commissioner of Social Security justified the policy as necessary to protect the "integrity" of the system, echoing Elon Musk's false claims of widespread Social Security fraud. After an initial claim is filed, the SSA already takes multiple steps to verify an applicant's identity, reviewing pay stubs, tax returns, medical records, and other documents. After a transition period, the ID verification policy will formally go into effect on March 31.
Together, the two policies could send up to 160,000 additional people to SSA field offices each week as the agency slashes 12% of its staff and closes dozens of field offices. Even before these changes, the average wait time for an in-person appointment was one month, and some people had to travel 100 miles to reach their nearest field office.
Kathleen Romig, a Social Security policy expert at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, emphasized that freezing the EBE program would impact everyone. Diverting SSA resources to process millions of applications for people granted work authorizations means "longer hold times on the phone, longer waits for an appointment, [and] longer times to process benefits applications and changes," Romig said. "What that means is delays for people accessing their earned Social Security benefits—and some people may not be able to access their benefits at all." |
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