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In my view there are three takeaways from this, all of which are correct: 1. Already strained government services need to bear increasing input, affecting wait

In my view there are three takeaways from this, all of which are correct: 1. Already strained government services need to bear increasing input, affecting waiting times and employee workloads, which is bad. 2. LLMs are empowering citizens to appeal in a social security landscape which often require expert-level knowledge to navigate, which is good. 3.This phenomenon says more about the complexity of our social security systems than it does about LLMs, hopefully prompting our governments to review and start thinking about social security reform.

AlexandrB 23d ago
You forgot: 2b. LLMs are empowering bad actors to exploit loopholes and collect benefits they're not entitled to. The assumption from a lot of commenters seems to be that these are all legitimate claims and appeals, not a gold rush to get money from the government while the getting's good. In the end it will be the good faith actors that suffer - both those relying on these benefits to survive who will have to jump through more hoops to prove it and those funding the system with their taxes.
- Palomides 23d ago
  is that actually happenng?
  - pixl97 23d ago
    "No, but we're reporting it is" --southpark
- pixl97 23d ago
  Having older parents and watching what my grandparents went thru long before LLMs I just don't worry about the poor old state that much. The political zeitgeist is to always blame the "bad people", the "welfare queens" and the "undeserving" as the problem with the system. But never the complex system that's seemingly designed to benefit things like corporations extracting as much wealth from the system as they can. Or politicians ear marking the money for things they want to do, rather than the people that put the money in the system. So, yea, your reasoning just really doesn't hit me in the heartstrings at all.
  - nonethewiser 23d ago
    >Having older parents and watching what my grandparents went thru long before LLMs I just don't worry about the poor old state that much. You should worry more about your parents whose benefits are jeopardized by stress to the benefits system.
    - willmarch 23d ago
      Is there any evidence that this is actually a real worry? Don’t audits usually find that vast majority of benefits are valid and correctly applied?
      - jwlake 23d ago
        No one ever audits them.
        willmarch 23d ago
        That can’t possibly be true since I’ve read audit reports on public benefits
      - thinkthatover 23d ago
        Medicaid and medicare make up 50% of the "abuse" (primarily overpayment), which again points towards companies milking the system, not individuals https://washingtonstand.com/article/gao-finds-15-major-federal-programs-improper-payments-zoomed-24-billion-higher-in-2025 https://washingtonstand.com/article/gao-finds-15-major-feder...
        willmarch 23d ago
        I decided to read the report this is article is referring to. The report is estimating improper payments which is basically just missing paperwork and other types of payment errors. The report says explicitly that it is not measuring fraud rates. So I dug a little deeper: roughly 94% of Medicare/Medicaid dollars and 89% of SNAP dollars passed audit reviews in 2025, but I can't find any national percentages for beneficiary fraud rates overall (which is sort of what we are talking about). Provider fraud does appear to be the main driver of healthcare losses if we look at the enforcement evidence, but that does not mean every improper payment is abuse. It does seem the programs are audited quite extensively (unlike what some other comments in this thread are claiming).
nonethewiser 23d ago
>2. LLMs are empowering citizens to appeal in a social security landscape which often require expert-level knowledge to navigate, which is good. Including Voter Roll Purge requests? That’s in the paper as well. Child protective services has a tip line.
iAMkenough 23d ago
> hopefully prompting our governments to review and start thinking about social security reform I see the opposite, where LLMs and purchased datasets will make it easier for governments to create additional barriers for taxpayers seeking welfare.

AlexandrB 23d ago

You forgot: 2b. LLMs are empowering bad actors to exploit loopholes and collect benefits they're not entitled to. The assumption from a lot of commenters seems to be that these are all legitimate claims and appeals, not a gold rush to get money from the government while the getting's good. In the end it will be the good faith actors that suffer - both those relying on these benefits to survive who will have to jump through more hoops to prove it and those funding the system with their taxes.

Palomides 23d ago
is that actually happenng?
- pixl97 23d ago
  "No, but we're reporting it is" --southpark
pixl97 23d ago
Having older parents and watching what my grandparents went thru long before LLMs I just don't worry about the poor old state that much. The political zeitgeist is to always blame the "bad people", the "welfare queens" and the "undeserving" as the problem with the system. But never the complex system that's seemingly designed to benefit things like corporations extracting as much wealth from the system as they can. Or politicians ear marking the money for things they want to do, rather than the people that put the money in the system. So, yea, your reasoning just really doesn't hit me in the heartstrings at all.
- nonethewiser 23d ago
  >Having older parents and watching what my grandparents went thru long before LLMs I just don't worry about the poor old state that much. You should worry more about your parents whose benefits are jeopardized by stress to the benefits system.
  - willmarch 23d ago
    Is there any evidence that this is actually a real worry? Don’t audits usually find that vast majority of benefits are valid and correctly applied?
    - jwlake 23d ago
      No one ever audits them.
      - willmarch 23d ago
        That can’t possibly be true since I’ve read audit reports on public benefits
    - thinkthatover 23d ago
      Medicaid and medicare make up 50% of the "abuse" (primarily overpayment), which again points towards companies milking the system, not individuals https://washingtonstand.com/article/gao-finds-15-major-federal-programs-improper-payments-zoomed-24-billion-higher-in-2025 https://washingtonstand.com/article/gao-finds-15-major-feder...
      - willmarch 23d ago
        I decided to read the report this is article is referring to. The report is estimating improper payments which is basically just missing paperwork and other types of payment errors. The report says explicitly that it is not measuring fraud rates. So I dug a little deeper: roughly 94% of Medicare/Medicaid dollars and 89% of SNAP dollars passed audit reviews in 2025, but I can't find any national percentages for beneficiary fraud rates overall (which is sort of what we are talking about). Provider fraud does appear to be the main driver of healthcare losses if we look at the enforcement evidence, but that does not mean every improper payment is abuse. It does seem the programs are audited quite extensively (unlike what some other comments in this thread are claiming).

nonethewiser 23d ago

>2. LLMs are empowering citizens to appeal in a social security landscape which often require expert-level knowledge to navigate, which is good. Including Voter Roll Purge requests? That’s in the paper as well. Child protective services has a tip line.

iAMkenough 23d ago

> hopefully prompting our governments to review and start thinking about social security reform I see the opposite, where LLMs and purchased datasets will make it easier for governments to create additional barriers for taxpayers seeking welfare.