Attorneys for survivors say DOGE’s slashing of staffers and field offices may make it harder to correct a longtime glitch that can cause them to lose their benefits
The story of this survivor, whom JTA is not naming at the request of her counsel, offers a peek at a troubling pattern that has persisted for decades: low-income Holocaust survivors being denied Social Security payments owing to a specific bureaucratic error that affects only them.
The problems have historically been resolved by persistence on the part of their attorneys. But Dembo said the Trump administration’s gutting of the Social Security Administration has made it harder for her to achieve redress for Holocaust survivors. Under the Department of Government Efficiency, the Social Security Administration expects to cut about 12% of its workforce — around 7,000 jobs — and shutter dozens of its field offices, even as the agency has instituted new rules requiring recipients to visit the offices in person to resolve disputes.
Cases can often be “cyclical,” according to Kate Lang, a director at the legal nonprofit Justice in Aging who focuses on SSI recipients. Every few years, Lang says, she’ll hear of new survivor over-resourcing errors — tied to a new round of Claims Conference reparations payments. There’s a bitter irony to this for her.
“Sadly, they’re like, ‘Here we are. We’re coming to help people. We’re going to send them some money,’” Lang said of the Claims Conference. “And then that has this ripple effect of causing problems for SSI recipients in this country.”
