Earlier, SSA allowed beneficiaries to update their direct deposit payment file via phone, with the caller confirming identity by sharing personally identifiable information stored with the agency, the report said.
OIG looked at direct deposit information of 3,109 beneficiaries that was updated by the SSA’s 800-number staff between October and December 2023. Some recipients reported that they had not gotten their payments, the OIG said.
Out of the 3,109 beneficiaries, approximately 1,197 beneficiary payments, worth $2.2 million, were found to be misdirected because the “800-number staff initiated unauthorized direct deposit changes,” the report said.
“As of April 2025, SSA had not recovered approximately $2 million of the $2.2 million.”
The OIG “could not confirm whether SSA followed policy regarding the verification of callers’ identities for these misdirected benefit payments” based on a sample study.
Besides this investigation, the OIG looked at data of beneficiaries whose direct deposit information was changed the following year, in October 2024.
Here, it was found that SSA’s staff did not always “appropriately verify” the identities of 25,638 callers who made direct deposit update requests. This put beneficiaries at risk of unauthorized changes to their deposit information, the report said.
In March 2025, the OIG sent an alert memorandum to the SSA regarding these issues, after which the SSA revised its policy on direct deposit updates via phone. The new policy has been in effect since April 14.
To change direct deposit information, SSA beneficiaries can now use the agency’s “my Social Security” online services or visit the local office.
The policy change, done in April, will limit how changes can be made over the telephone, said the OIG report. Stronger identity proofing and authentication have also been implemented.
In an Aug. 28 letter to OIG Acting Inspector General Michelle L. Anderson, the SSA said it takes the issue of improper payments “very seriously.”
“We continue to develop the Technician Experience Dashboard (TED) application to ensure it has up-to-date, accurate, and helpful consolidated customer information that assists technicians in providing excellent, secure, and efficient service to the public,” the SSA said.
“The streamlined approach in TED will ensure technicians adhere to not only access and disclosure concerns, but also policy and procedure guidelines.”
SSA Under Scrutiny
The OIG report about the SSA’s misdirected payments comes at a time when the SSA’s customer service has become a point of conflict between the Trump administration and Democrats.
The administration has insisted that customer service has improved over the past months.
The agency also achieved a 26 percent reduction in initial disability claims backlog from its June 2024 all-time high, the letter said.
In a Sept. 4 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump highlighted customer service improvements at the Social Security Administration.
The agency has reduced the average speed of answer on its 800 number from 27.6 minutes in the last fiscal year to 7.5 minutes on average in July, a 73 percent improvement, the post said.
Data from the SSA website show that its agents handled 3.5 million calls last month, with the average speed of answer at nine minutes.
Lawmakers accused the SSA of misleading the public about the agency’s performance to push forward the Trump administration’s claim that customer service has never been better.
“SSA is cherry-picking misleading performance metrics every month to prop up the Trump administration’s dangerous agenda,” the statement said.
