A whistleblower complaint has sparked a federal investigation into claims a former member of a government cost-cutting team said she had access to sensitive Social Security data and planned to use it after moving to a private-sector job.The Social Security Administration’s internal watchdog is investigating the allegations, which involve a former software engineer with the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. According to sources cited by The Washington Post, the agency’s inspector general has informed members of Congress about the complaint and shared it with the Government Accountability Office, which is conducting a separate audit into DOGE’s access to government data.DOGE was launched by Tesla CEO Elon Musk after US President Donald Trump asked him to lead an initiative aimed at cutting costs and identifying waste in federal agencies.The complaint says the former engineer worked for the Social Security Administration last year before joining a government contractor in October. According to the revelations, he allegedly told several associates that he had access to two highly restricted databases containing records of millions of Americans. A database was reportedly stored on a thumb drive.The databases mentioned in the complaint are called “Numident” and the “Master Death File.” Together they contain records relating to more than 500 million living and deceased Americans, including Social Security numbers, date and place of birth, citizenship details, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names.According to the revelations, the engineer told the whistleblower that he needed help in transferring the data from the thumb drive to his personal computer so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data before using it (in the company). The complaint says they planned to remove personal identifiers before uploading the information to the company’s systems.The complaint also claims the engineer told another co-worker that he expected to receive a presidential pardon if his actions were found illegal. That colleague reportedly refused to help upload the data due to legal concerns.The whistleblower filed a complaint with the Inspector General’s office on January 9 and later updated it on January 26. The complaint does not state whether the engineer successfully transferred or uploaded the data.The Washington Post reviewed the complaint and spoke to the whistleblower, who filed the report anonymously due to fear of retaliation. The newspaper did not name the former DOGE employee or the company involved because the allegations have not been independently confirmed.When contacted earlier this year, both the Social Security Administration and the company said they had not previously heard of the complaint. After reviewing the case, both said they did not find evidence to support the claims. The company said it conducted a two-day “thorough” internal investigation and concluded that the allegations were unfounded.A lawyer representing the former DOGE member told The Washington Post that his client has denied all alleged wrongdoing.An official familiar with Engineer’s departure from the agency said that when he left the Social Security Administration he returned his government laptop and lost his data access privileges.Former SSA data officer Charles Borges expressed concern, “This is the absolute worst-case scenario. There could be one or a million copies, and we’ll never know.”