The Social Security Administration scrapped the Department of Government Efficiency’s plans to stop providing service to recipients over the phone. Last month, DOGE proposed ending some of the Social Security Administration’s over-the-phone claims services to combat identity fraud,

The Social Security Administration said on Tuesday that unusually high traffic to its “my Social Security” website and an old computer system led to an online outage, according to a post on social-media website X.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that the phone policy and Wednesday’s retreat had caused “head-spinning chaos” that is “undermining Americans’ faith that Social Security will be there when they need it.”