The Trump administration wrongly says that 10M+ dead persons over 100 get Social Security.
President Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk have claimed on social media and in press briefings that people aged 100, 200, and even 300 are wrongly getting benefits, which Musk called a “HUGE problem,” as his Department of Government Efficiency investigates federal agencies for waste, fraud, and abuse.
Here are some facts: What does Trump think of centenarian pay?
Trump stated at a Florida press conference Tuesday, “We have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” on Social Security. Trump stated, “They’re fake or inept.”
He added, “If you take all those millions from Social Security, we suddenly have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80, 70, and 90, but not 200 years old.” He called a system user 360.
Musk tweeted late Monday, “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” and “Having tens of millions of dead people in Social Security is a HUGE problem.” Obviously. Some are older than America. Think about it.
On Wednesday, Lee Dudek, Social Security’s new acting commissioner, underlined recent disclosures regarding the number of adults past 100 who may be collecting payments. The data are people in our records with Social Security numbers but no death dates. These people may not obtain aid.
Dudek continued: “With DOGE’s help and our executive team and workforce’s commitment, Security will keep serving Americans.”
How bad is Social Security fraud?
The department spent $8.6 trillion from FY 2015 to 2022, including $71.8 billion in errors, citing a July 2024 report by Social Security’s inspector general. Most errors were inflated living costs.
In early January, the U.S. Treasury recovered nearly $31 million in federal payments—beyond Social Security payments—that had been improperly issued to deceased people, a recovery that former Treasury official David Lebryk termed “just the tip of the iceberg.”
The 2021 omnibus budget bill let the Treasury Department see the Security Administration’s “Full Death Master File” for three years. The five-month trial was worth it. The SSA maintains the most thorough government database on the dead, with over 142 million records since 1899, says the Treasury.
The Treasury anticipated in January that it would recoup around $215 million from December 2023 to 2026.
Are 10M+ centenarians benefiting?
No.
The absence of a date type in Social Security’s COBOL software system adds to confusion. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will be set to over 150 years ago. WIRED initially reported on SSA’s COBOL.
The Social Security Administration has not made a new system to annotate death information in its database, which has about 18.9 million Security numbers for people born in 1920 or earlier who have not been marked as dead, according to inspector general reports from March 2023 and July 2024. But this didn’t give them an edge.
The agency chose not to update the database due to a $9M cost.
The July 2023 Social Security OIG report notes “almost none of the numberholders discussed in the report currently receive SSA payments.” In addition, effective in September 2015, the agency will automatically terminate rewarding anyone over the age of 115 years.
What are the issues with Social Security payment lies?
“Two cheers for Elon Musk if he can root out and stop improper payments,” said Chuck Blahous, a senior research strategist at George Mason University’s Mercatus Centre.
Blahous said, “Security would be near the bottom of the list, not near the top,” when asked about high federal error rates. “Medicaid’s improper payment rates rose after the ACA expanded.”
“Sure, chase any improper payments, but don’t act like that’s the system’s biggest financial issue,” he said. George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government public policy professor Sita Nataraj Slavov believes Musk and Trump’s comments could convince people that the government’s fiscal issues are easy to fix.
In fact, Slavov fears this claim may mislead people into thinking that restoring solvency to Social Security can be done without sacrificing benefits or raising taxes.”
What does the White House think of the criticism?
Karoline Leavitt, a White House spokesperson, cited the Social Security Inspector General’s Report.
She said, “A prior study found the SSA made at least $71.8B in improper payments.” The SSA seeks more waste, fraud, and abuse to save taxpayers.
SOURCE: AP
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