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By Shane Croucher and Aliss Higham
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Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has said it has begun a "major cleanup" of records at the Social Security Agency.
"For the past two weeks, @SocialSecurity has begun a major cleanup of their records. Approximately 3.2 million numberholders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked as deceased. More work still to be done," DOGE said on X early on Tuesday.
Newsweek has contacted the SSA for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
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Why It Matters
Tesla's billionaire CEO Musk, who is leading President Donald Trump's cuts to federal spending, in February said millions of people well above the age of 100 could be collecting Social Security benefits.
The SSA has suggested the figures have been misread and those millions refer to many not receiving benefits but "do not have a date of death associated with their record." Its published statistics show of 67 million receiving Social Security benefits, approximately 53,000—about 0.1 percent—are centenarians.
What To Know
The post from DOGE said that over two weeks more than 3.2 million people older than 120 years old had been removed; though 9.5 million Social Security numbers belonging to people over the age of 120 remained.
DOGE released a chart that broke down the records cleanup by age brackets. It showed:
Musk first brought attention to the SSA's records on deceased Social Security number holders in February. He posted a spreadsheet of data showing "the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!"
"Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," he wrote.
The data appear to be from the SSA's Numident system, which contains all Social Security numbers since they first were issued in 1936. In a March 2015 review, the SSA found that it had not marked death records for 6.5 million people over 112 years old who were likely deceased.
In a statement issued on March 5, the SSA explained: "The data reported in the media represent people who do not have a date of death associated with their record. While these people may not be receiving benefits, it is important for the agency to maintain accurate and complete records."
The SSA also has a policy of automatically stopping benefit payments to anyone recorded as aged 115 and older.
A July 2024 report from Social Security's inspector general found that between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, the federal agency distributed nearly $8.6 trillion in benefits. Some $71.8 billion of this—less than 1 percent—was classified as improper payments, with the majority being overpayments made to living recipients, which are in most cases required to be paid back.
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What People Are Saying
Writing on X, Musk said on February 24: "We are increasingly optimistic that, as the immense waste & fraud are eliminated from Social Security & Medical that there is potential to increase actual dollars received by citizens & better healthcare!"
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek: "Social Security fraud certainly exists, but the claims it's rampant because a database had many recipients who were supposedly aged at well over 100 years old isn't evidence it's widespread. More than anything, the findings should alert the new administration to how antiquated many of the databases of government agencies are that normally produce errors such as these."
What's Next
DOGE said it is continuing to update the SSA's records, meaning that more Social Security numbers will be marked as deceased in the coming weeks or months.
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