They are leadership appointments, investigations into fraud, inflation policy, and immigration reforms. Here is what you need to know:
- An experienced acting commissioner takes the helm:
President Trump on January 20, 2025, named Michelle King acting Social Security commissioner. King entered the SSA as a worker in 1994 as a bilingual claims representative and held a series of positions, the most recent as deputy commissioner for operations. Her experience will offer stability and seasoned leadership to the agency at this time of change.
- Department of Government Efficiency Targets Social Security:
President Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on January 20, 2025, and appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk as its head to lead the charge in reducing federal spending. Musk is a vocal supporter in fixing fraudulent issues with Social Security programs among others. In his opinion, an initial probe discovered the money disbursed to beneficiaries who are allegedly 150 years old, and this has uncovered ridiculous inefficiencies in the system.
Experts, however, attribute such irregularities as a result of default settings of older COBOL code and not fraud. Even without hard evidence, Musk nonetheless insists on proper audits and overhauls to eliminate waste and fraud from the program.
- Inflationary policies and how they affect Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs):
Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are based solely on inflation rates.
President Trump’s recent economic moves, including the imposition of tariffs—25% on steel and aluminum imports, and 10% on all other Chinese imports—can affect inflation. While meant to make domestic industries stay strong, they add extra cost to consumers and therefore affect final COLAs paid to Social Security recipients. All these allegedly being done by the administration to shore up the economy but with not yet sufficient time to impact most on future inflation and hence Social Security benefits.
- Immigration crackdown and its impact on Social Security trust funds:
The administration’s tough immigration policy has its unforeseen implications on the financial health of Social Security.
Illegal aliens contribute an estimated $13 billion in payroll taxes annually that they will not receive in Social Security benefits. Mass deportations or forceful enforcement of immigration laws would drain that pool of funds, which would accelerate the depletion of Social Security trust funds. While these steps are being made toward legal and security issues, they may impact the program’s viability in ways unforeseen, leading to controversy regarding whether more extensive changes should be made to guarantee its long-term health.
The secret $22,924 Social Security bonus:
Fewer beneficiaries have information about techniques that are capable of increasing Social Security benefits by tens of thousands of dollars.
The recipients receive more in monthly benefits by waiting until they are full retirement age to take benefits. Waiting until age 70, for instance, can increase benefits another 32% compared to taking it at age 66. It is a tactic that will require some planning but is well worth an enormous payoff at retirement. It is advisable to have people visit and sit with financial planners and review their options in relation to their retirement strategy and optimizing their Social Security benefit.
