Head Of State Donald Trump and Elon Musk, in their quest for “fraudulence, waste and misuse” in the federal government, are incorrectly suggesting numerous dead Americans are obtaining Social Safety and security advantages, professionals informed ABC Information.
It began in the Oval Workplace recently when Musk– encountering press reporters for the very first time considering that the Division of Federal government Performance started its hostile overhaul of the federal government– claimed he located “insane points” in the Social Safety and security system, consisting of, he claimed, individuals that are “150 years of ages.”
The billionaire has actually just improved that case on social networks, consisting of screenshots of information he claimed programs numerous individuals noted as “active” in the Social Safety and security system when they plainly can not be.
” Possibly Golden is genuine and there are a great deal of vampires accumulating Social Safety and security,” he composed in one article.
After That, on Tuesday, Trump duplicated a lot of the very same numbers Musk produced as he reviewed from a comprehensive listing at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago.
” Currently, the large point is, the amount of of these individuals earned money? Where are they making money? Where are they making money? The amount of of them were making money Social Safety and security, since that’s– if that holds true, it’s an enormous fraudulence,” Trump, showing shock, informed press reporters.
Social Safety and security plan professionals and economic experts informed ABC Information that they are obtaining it incorrect, competing Musk is misinterpreting the firm’s documents system.
The Social Protection Management (SSA) has numerous data sources, consisting of one that obtains sent out to the Treasury Division every month describing that is obtaining settlements.
According to agency statistics, of the 67 million individuals that obtain Social Safety and security advantages, just 0.1% more than the age of 100.
” So, when they’re spraying numbers like 10s of numerous dead individuals are obtaining Social Safety and security, well there’s just 67 million overall. What are they discussing? Fifty percent individuals are really dead? The numbers are so ludicrous. It’s not real,” claimed Kathleen Romig, the supervisor of Social Safety and security and handicap plan at the Fixate Budget Plan and Plan Priorities.
SSA does make some inappropriate settlements, however they are not prevalent (about 1%) and a lot of the blunders made are overpayments to living recipients, according to a July 2024 examiner’s basicreport That record located from 2015 via 2022, the SSA made $71.8 billion in inappropriate settlements. The firm problems $1 trillion in advantages annually.
Elon Musk pays attention to Head of state Donald Trump talk in the Oval Workplace of the White Residence in Washington, D.C., Feb. 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
One more data source, professionals claimed, is called Numident and consists of a document of everyone that has actually ever before been designated a Social Safety and security number. There are individuals in the system, they claimed, that have actually passed away however do not have a day of fatality videotaped since they lived lengthy prior to digital documents were developed.
This information collection, professionals claimed, has absolutely nothing to do with regular monthly settlements however seems highly likely where Musk is obtaining info that there are numerous individuals ages 100 to 369 in the system.
Justin Wolfers, a teacher of public law and business economics at the College of Michigan, claimed it is “transparently evident that he’s misunderstanding or misstating” the information however kept in mind Musk is not “revealing his job.”
Musk has not clearly claimed where he is obtaining the information he is uploading to social networks.
Still, his insinuations that the existence of such info within SSA is dubious or brand-new is likewise deceptive, professionals claimed.
The federal government has actually understood the Numident system is flawed by doing this for several years, according to audits. A 2023 examiner general’s report located almost 19 million individuals birthed prior to 1920 that do not have fatality info in the document.
The SSA chose not to attend to inconsistencies as a result of just how much it would certainly set you back to take care of (upwards of $9 million) and the “minimal advantage” it would certainly carry the firm, the record kept in mind.
Romig, that formerly operated in the Social Safety and security Management, likewise stressed there are numerous sign in area to stop dead people from obtaining settlements. The firm has a plan to instantly quit settlements at the age of 115, and after a specific age they examine to see that older recipients are still making use of Medicare advantages.
This isn’t the very first time Musk has actually spread out incorrect or deceptive info. In the Oval Workplace recently, he backtracked on a case spread prolifically by the Trump management that USAID was sending out $50 million well worth of prophylactics to Gaza and Hamas. As a matter of fact, the prophylactics were sent out to a district in Mozambique called Gaza as component of an HIV avoidance procedure.
” Well, to start with, a few of the important things that I claim will certainly be inaccurate and need to be remedied,” Musk claimed. “No one’s mosting likely to bat a thousand. We will certainly make blunders, however we’ll act promptly to fix any type of blunders.”
