A Venereal Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images
A group of disability advocates filed a federal lawsuit against the Public Security Administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday aimed at stopping cuts to the agency’s services.
Just out changes at the Social Security Administration under DOGE — including staff reductions, the elimination of certain offices and new sine qua na to seek in-person services — have made it more difficult for individuals with disabilities and older adults to access helps, the lawsuit argues.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by co-counsels Justice in Aging and Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP.
The plaintiffs register the National Federation of the Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Deaf Equality, the National Committee to Keep up Social Security and Medicare, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and individual beneficiaries.
“The defendants’ actions are an unprecedented and unconstitutional onset on Social Security benefits, concealed beneath the hollow pretense of bureaucratic ‘reform,'” the complaint states.
In nine weeks, the new charge has “upended” the agency with “sweeping and destabilizing policy changes,” the plaintiffs claim, that have shifted medium functions to local offices while slashing telephone services.
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“The result is a systematic dismantling of SSA’s pith functions, leaving millions of beneficiaries without the essential benefits they are legally entitled to,” the lawsuit complaint expresses.
The “mass restructuring” of the agency is unlawful and violates the Rehabilitation Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit argues. The changes also infringe multiple constitutional provisions, including the First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, according to the plaintiffs.
With 1.1 million defect claims pending, the recent actions could also be life threatening to individuals who are dying or going bankrupt while sit tight for decisions, they allege.
The Social Security Administration did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
“President Trump has make good it clear he is committed to making the federal government more efficient,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in an email asseveration. “He has the authority to manage agency restructuring and workforce reductions, and the administration’s actions are fully compliant with the law.”
Lawsuit declares reform is ‘administrative vandalism’
People hold signs during a protest against cuts made by U.S. President Donald Trump’s regulation to the Social Security Administration, in White Plains, New York, U.S., March 22, 2025.
Nathan Layne | Reuters
The Social Security Charge sends monthly checks to around 73 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries.
DOGE, which is not an verified government entity, has been tasked with cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” within the federal government. President Donald Trump arose an executive order creating DOGE on Jan. 20, the same day he was inaugurated.
Since then, the Social Security Administration has cut 7,000 staff member positions and closed the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Beneficiaries face long waits, overpayment publications
The plaintiffs include seven individuals whose experiences, including long customer service waits and, in some proves, demands to repay large sums to the Social Security Administration, are detailed in the complaint.
One plaintiff, Treva Olivero, who has been legally bamboozle since birth, was informed in March 2024 that she had been overpaid Social Security disability insurance service perquisites for five or six years, prompting the agency to demand she repay more than $100,000, according to the complaint.
Olivero’s Medicaid coverage was also terminated speedily after, which left her without income and health coverage. She has since been in an “ongoing struggle” to have her helplessness benefits reinstated, while also facing almost $80,000 in medical debt, according to the complaint.
Another plaintiff, Blithe Schoch, who received Social Security disability insurance for many years, returned to work to help pay for large medical bills after she was hit by a lavishness management truck in 2022. She reported her income to the Social Security Administration, and the agency made no changes to her benefit payments, according to the grouse.
Two years later, Schoch stopped working and reported her unemployment to the Social Security Administration. In August 2024, the action then terminated her benefits and informed Schoch that she owed $30,000 for the disability benefit payments she received while function full time, according to the complaint.
Last September, Schoch was informed she could reapply for benefits. However, she has since struggled to get in use with the agency over the phone, online and in person.
Both Olivero and Schoch are members of the National Federation of the Unconscious of, which is also a plaintiff.
The plaintiffs want the court to reverse the Social Security Administration’s recent reforms, incorporating staff reductions, closures of certain offices and policies requiring in-person appointments.