“… The change in the phone service comes after the Social Security Administration
announced a massive restructuring last month, with plans to cut about 7,000 jobs, or 12% of its workforce, and reduce the number of regional offices to four from 10. …”
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This is one of those things that makes sense if you have never tried to help anyone 75 or older do anything online. And from everything I have heard the hold time for a SSA call can sometimes be 1-3 hours anyway. But I am open to details confirming this will actually prevent fraud (a tweet is insufficient to confirm the basis for this).
But it certainly leads to questions about also closing local office in-person service centers at the same time.