WASHINGTON — The newly appointed head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) stated on Wednesday that deceased individuals aged 100 and older are “not necessarily receiving benefits,” disputing claims suggesting that millions of centenarians are benefiting from the agency. Lee Dudek, the acting commissioner designated by President Trump, provided this clarification in response to assertions made by both Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who suggested on social media and during press briefings that an outrageous number of people over 100—some allegedly over 200 and even 300 years old—are improperly collecting payments from the SSA.
Though it is accurate that there have been instances of improper payments, including those issued to deceased individuals, the figures presented by Trump and Musk are exaggerated and misrepresent the actual data from the Social Security Administration. During a press conference in Florida on Tuesday, Trump claimed, “we have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” benefiting from Social Security, labeling these cases as “obviously fraudulent or incompetent.” He further asserted that removing these supposed fraud cases from the calculations would restore Social Security’s viability, specifically referencing a person in the system entering as being 360 years old.
In a series of posts on his social media platform X, Musk, whose recently formed Department of Government Efficiency aims to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse, also made exaggerated comments concerning the SSA. He humorously remarked about the possibility of vampires collecting benefits and criticized the existence of “tens of millions” of deceased individuals erroneously classified as alive by Social Security records, insinuating that some of these individuals may have predicated the founding of the United States.
So is the reality that millions of centenarians are receiving benefits? The answer is no. A portion of this misunderstanding stems from the SSA’s outdated software system programmed in COBOL, which lacks a proper date type. As a result, missing or incomplete birthdates default to an arbitrary cut-off date over 150 years ago. A report by WIRED highlighted these outdated practices within the SSA’s software.
Moreover, findings by the SSA’s inspector general in both March 2023 and July 2024 indicated that the agency has not successfully implemented a system to accurately mark deceased individuals within its records, resulting in around 18.9 million Social Security numbers—specifically for those born in 1920 or earlier—remaining unmarked as deceased. However, this does not indicate that these individuals are receiving benefits. The SSA opted against updating its database due to the significant costs, estimated to exceed $9 million.
A report from the Social Security OIG in July 2023 mentioned that “almost none of the numberholders discussed in the report currently receive SSA payments.” Since September 2015, the SSA has an automatic protocol in place to cease payments to anyone older than 115 years.
Dudek, who took over the acting commissioner role following Michelle King’s resignation, released a statement on Wednesday reaffirming the SSA’s focus on transparency, acknowledging the confusion surrounding the benefits received by individuals over 100 years old. He clarified that the reported figures relate to individuals within their records who lack an associated date of death, emphasizing that these individuals are “not necessarily receiving benefits.”
Looking at trends in Social Security fraud, a report from July 2024 disclosed that from 2015 to 2022, the agency distributed nearly $8.6 trillion in benefits, with just $71.8 billion—less than 1%—attributed to incorrect payments. The vast majority of these erroneous disbursements consisted of overpayments to living beneficiaries. Additionally, in January of this year, the U.S. Treasury reclaimed over $31 million in various federal payments that had mistakenly been issued to deceased individuals. Former Treasury official David Lebryk described this recovery as merely the “tip of the iceberg.” The funds were returned following a pilot program enabling the Treasury access to the SSA’s full death records as part of an omnibus appropriations bill.
Concerns regarding misinformation about Social Security payments have been echoed among experts. Chuck Blahous, a research strategist at the Mercatus Center, acknowledged Musk’s intentions to combat improper payments but cautioned that the Social Security program ranks low on the list of federal inaccuracies. He noted that other programs, like Medicaid, exhibit much higher rates of improper payments. Moreover, Sita Nataraj Slavov, a public policy professor, expressed that claims made by Trump and Musk risk oversimplifying complex financial issues threatening Social Security, suggesting that these assertions might mislead the public into believing that there are uncomplicated solutions to restoring the program’s solvency without necessary adjustments, such as increased taxes or reduced benefits.
In response to the criticisms surrounding improper payments, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt referred to insights from the inspector general’s report, pointing to the $71.8 billion previously identified as improper payments and emphasizing the SSA’s ongoing efforts to detect additional instances of waste and fraud within its systems to safeguard American taxpayers.
