WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of thousands and thousands of useless folks over 100 years previous are receiving Social Safety funds.
Over the previous few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have stated on social media and in press briefings that people who find themselves 100, 200 and even 300 years previous are improperly getting advantages — a “HUGE downside,” Musk wrote, as his Division of Authorities Effectivity digs into federal businesses to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
It’s true that improper funds have been made, together with some to useless folks. However the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White Home are overstated and misrepresent Social Safety information.
Listed here are the details:
On Tuesday, Trump stated at a press briefing in Florida that “we now have thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of individuals over 100 years previous” receiving Social Safety advantages. “They’re clearly fraudulent or incompetent,” Trump stated.
“In the event you take all of these thousands and thousands of individuals off Social Safety, abruptly we now have a really highly effective Social Safety with folks which can be 80 and 70 and 90, however not 200 years previous,” he stated. He additionally stated that there’s one individual within the system listed as 360 years previous.
Late Monday, Musk posted a slew of posts on his social media platform X, together with: “Possibly Twilight is actual and there are numerous vampires gathering Social Safety,” and “Having tens of thousands and thousands of individuals marked in Social Safety as “ALIVE” when they’re undoubtedly useless is a HUGE downside. Clearly. A few of these folks would have been alive earlier than America existed as a rustic. Take into consideration that for a second …”
A July 2024 report from Social Safety’s inspector common states that from fiscal years 2015 by way of 2022, the company paid out virtually $8.6 trillion in advantages, together with $71.8 billion — or lower than 1% — in improper funds. Many of the inaccurate funds had been overpayments to residing folks.
As well as, in early January, the U.S. Treasury clawed again greater than $31 million in quite a lot of federal funds— not simply Social Safety funds— that improperly went to useless folks, a restoration that former Treasury official David Lebryk stated was “simply the tip of the iceberg.”
The cash was reclaimed as a part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave the Division of Treasury non permanent entry to the Social Safety Administration’s “Full Dying Grasp File” for 3 years as a part of the omnibus appropriations invoice in 2021. The SSA maintains probably the most full federal database of people who’ve died, and the file incorporates greater than 142 million data, which return to 1899, based on the Treasury.
Treasury estimated in January that it might recuperate greater than $215 million throughout its three-year entry interval, which runs from December 2023 by way of 2026.
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A part of the confusion comes from Social Safety’s software program system known as COBOL, which has an absence of date kind in its programming. Because of this some entries with lacking or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference level of greater than 150 years in the past. The information group WIRED first reported on the usage of COBOL programming language on the Social Safety Administration.
Moreover, a collection of experiences from the Social Safety Administration’s inspector common in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the company has not established a brand new system to correctly annotate demise info in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Safety numbers of individuals born in 1920 or earlier however weren’t marked as deceased. This doesn’t imply, nonetheless, that these people had been receiving advantages.
The company determined to not replace the database due to the fee to take action, which might run upward of $9 million.
A July 2023 Social Safety OIG report states that “virtually not one of the numberholders mentioned within the report at the moment obtain SSA funds.” And, as of September 2015, the company robotically stops funds to people who find themselves older than 115 years previous.
Chuck Blahous, a senior analysis strategist on the Mercatus Heart at George Mason College, stated, “Two cheers for Elon Musk if he can root out and put a cease to improper funds.”
However to choose the locations within the federal authorities the place error charges are excessive, “Social Safety could be close to the underside of the listing, not close to the highest,” Blahous stated. “Medicaid improper cost charges are fairly substantial, and soared after the Medicaid enlargement of the ACA.”
“By all means — go after any improper funds which can be discovered, however let’s not faux that’s the place the system’s greatest monetary issues are,” he stated.
Sita Nataraj Slavov, a professor of public coverage on the Schar College of Coverage and Authorities at George Mason College, stated the claims by Musk and Trump will make folks suppose the options to the federal government’s monetary issues are easier than they seem.
“The actual concern is that this declare could mislead folks into considering there’s a simple repair to Social Safety’s monetary issues — that we will one way or the other restore solvency with out making sacrifices by way of increased taxes or decrease advantages,” Slavov stated. “That is merely not true.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White Home spokesperson, referred again to the Social Safety’s inspector common report.
“A earlier investigation revealed the SSA paid at the very least $71.8 billion in improper funds,” she stated. “The Social Safety Administration is now working to seek out much more waste, fraud, and abuse within the Administration’s whole-of-government effort to guard American taxpayers.”
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