The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
Over the past few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have made statements on social media and in press briefings alleging that people aged 100, 200, and even 300 years old are improperly receiving benefits. Musk called it a “HUGE problem” as his Department of Government Efficiency investigates federal agencies for waste, fraud, and abuse.
What Has the Trump Administration Said About Payments to Centenarians?
On Tuesday, Trump stated at a press briefing in Florida, “We have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” receiving Social Security benefits. “They’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent,” he added.
Trump suggested that removing these “millions” from the system would strengthen Social Security for legitimate recipients. He also referenced an instance where a person in the system was reportedly listed as 360 years old.
Late Monday, Musk took to his social media platform X to post, “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” and “Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as ‘ALIVE’ when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem.” He implied that some listed individuals were alive before the United States was even established.
How Big of a Problem Is Social Security Fraud?
A July 2024 report from Social Security’s inspector general found that from fiscal years 2015 through 2022, the agency paid out nearly $8.6 trillion in benefits, with improper payments amounting to $71.8 billion—or less than 1% of total disbursements. The majority of these erroneous payments were overpayments to living recipients.
In early 2024, the U.S. Treasury recovered over $31 million in federal payments, including Social Security funds, that had been improperly paid to deceased individuals. This recovery was part of a five-month pilot program after Congress temporarily granted the Department of Treasury access to the Social Security Administration’s “Full Death Master File” in 2021. The file contains more than 142 million records dating back to 1899.
The Treasury estimates that it will recover over $215 million in improper payments by the end of the three-year access period, which runs through 2026.
Are Tens of Millions of People Over 100 Receiving Benefits?
No.
The confusion partly stems from the Social Security Administration’s outdated software, which relies on the COBOL programming language. When birthdate data is missing or incomplete, the system defaults to a reference point over 150 years ago. As a result, individuals may appear in the system with unrealistically old ages. WIRED was among the first news organizations to report on this flaw in the Social Security Administration’s database.
Reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 also highlight that the agency has not implemented a system to properly annotate death information. Around 18.9 million Social Security numbers belong to individuals born in 1920 or earlier and are not marked as deceased. However, this does not mean that all of these individuals are actively receiving payments.
The agency opted not to update the database due to the estimated cost of over $9 million. A July 2023 Social Security OIG report confirmed that “almost none of the numberholders discussed in the report currently receive SSA payments.” Additionally, as of September 2015, the agency automatically halts payments to anyone over 115 years old.
What Are Some Concerns About Misinformation on Social Security Payments?
Chuck Blahous, a senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, stated, “Two cheers for Elon Musk if he can root out and stop improper payments.” However, he noted that Social Security is not the biggest source of government waste.
“If you were to rank federal agencies by error rates, Social Security would be near the bottom of the list, not the top,” Blahous said. He pointed out that Medicaid has a much higher rate of improper payments, particularly after its expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Sita Nataraj Slavov, a professor of public policy at George Mason University’s Schar School, warned that Trump and Musk’s claims could mislead the public about Social Security’s financial state.
“The real concern is that this claim may make people think there’s an easy fix to Social Security’s financial problems,” she said. “That we can restore solvency without making sacrifices through higher taxes or lower benefits. That is simply not true.”
What Does the White House Say About the Criticism?
Karoline Leavitt, a White House spokesperson, referred back to the Social Security inspector general’s report.
“A previous investigation revealed the SSA paid at least $71.8 billion in improper payments,” she stated. “The Social Security Administration is now working to find even more waste, fraud, and abuse as part of the Administration’s whole-of-government effort to protect American taxpayers.”
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