The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is probing possible fraud within the Social Security system, and its leader Elon Musk recently revealed eye-opening data from its records.
“Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!” Musk said, sharing an image of a chart with age groups extending as far as 369 years old.
The data revealed an astounding number of individuals in some highly improbable age ranges. For example, there are 4.7 million people listed between the ages of 100 and 109, but the situation becomes even more bizarre with 3.6 million in the 110 to 119 bracket, 3.4 million in the 120 to 129 range, 3.9 million in the 130 to 139 category, 3.4 million in the 140 to 149 range, and 1.3 million listed as being between 150 and 159.
The numbers continue, though in smaller amounts, for those supposedly in their 200s. For instance, 1,039 are recorded as being between the ages of 220 and 229.
Shockingly, there is even one person listed in the age category of 360 to 369.
“Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk quipped.
“Yes, there are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA,” Musk remarked further. “This might be the biggest fraud in history.”
“Looking into this,” DOGE shared in a repost.
This follows comments Musk made on February 11.
“So, crazy things like just cursory examination of Social Security and we’ve got people in there that are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone who’s 150? I don’t, OK. They should be on the Guinness Book of World Records, they’re missing out,” Musk commented.
“So, that’s a case where I think they’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous — one of the two. And then there’s a whole bunch of Social Security payments where there’s no identifying information,” he continued.
Pew Research data reveals that there were approximately 101,000 people aged 100 or older in the United States as of 2024.
PolitiFact reached out to the Social Security office, which offered two possible explanations. One suggestion is that “Government databases may code someone as 150 years old for reasons peculiar to the large and complex Social Security database.” The office also acknowledged that “improper payments” have been an ongoing concern, but insisted these errors constitute “a small share of all payments.”
Thus, the issues were not fully resolved, as the office admitted to the ongoing problem of improper payments. Additional potential reasons for the discrepancies include multiple birthdates recorded for individuals and a standardized coding process, according to the outlet:
Under the international standard ISO 8601, when a date is missing, it is coded as May 20, 1875, the date of the international standards-setting conference in Paris known as the “Convention du Mètre.”
Therefore, certain coding systems default to 1875 for missing dates, which in 2025 results in the age of 150.
Ultimately, this issue highlights yet another example of possible fraud within existing systems, an area that the Trump administration has pledged to address. On the other hand, Democrats have attempted to incite fear, claiming that President Donald Trump seeks to dismantle Social Security—an assertion that is far from accurate.
“First of all, let’s remember President Trump has promised that he is not going to affect the payments and the process for Social Security and Medicare for seniors in America. And so, you know, he has made that promise,” Saul Anuzis, president of the 60 Plus Association, said in an interview on Breitbart News Saturday. He pointed out that fraud exists in both Medicare and Social Security and needs to be uncovered. These efforts, he added, would ultimately benefit the programs in the long run.
“Medicare in particular has huge amounts of fraud in the system. You could, you could strengthen and protect Social Security and Medicare by probably 20 to 25 percent of all its funds by going after the waste and the fraud inside the system. I mean, there are billions of dollars of checks that are going out to people that either are not U.S. citizens — don’t deserve it … And so I think what you get to find with DOGE and what’s happening with Elon Musk and his team is they’re going to find all kinds of abuses … particularly inside of Medicare that is going to give — provide more funds to give to the people who are actually in need,” Anuzis predicted.
This, he stressed, “will help guarantee that Social Security and Medicare last longer” and are better funded, “and they’ll be able to do that without cutting a single dime from people’s benefits.”
“All they have to do is go after the fraud,” he concluded.
{Matzav.com}
And no one previously noticed this ir cared to do anything about it
I would guess it was noticed numerous times and no one cared.
That’s called government not working for us taxpayers rather for other interests.
Calling computer/software issues fraud when/if few if any (fraudulent) benefits are being paid out is, to be honest, very misleading and, may I say, fraudulent, in its own way.
Someone who was, say, 60 the year the SS system began collecting and making payments (January, ’37), would only be 148 today. Something other than fraud is wrong here.
I wonder how many of them voted?