Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been claiming that there is massive fraud involved in federal entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare programmes.
Yesterday, Musk shared data in an X post, suggesting that over 20 million people aged between 100 and 159 are still eligible for social security payments. "According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real, and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," the billionaire wrote.
The data revealed that thousands of people over the age of 200 are eligible for Social Security. At the same time, Musk's DOGE is coming down hard on the US Department of Health and Human Services for having on its records more than 60 million people than the entire US population.
In 2024, over 68 million people received Social Security benefits. However, the figures shared by Musk raise questions about how many payments were distributed by the Social Security Administration (SSA) due to fraud or by mistake to people who are dead or never existed.
DOGE Vows To Look Into The Matter
Musk highlighted how the data showed that there are far more eligible Social Security Numbers than citizens in the US, which "might be the biggest fraud in history."
While a 2023 count shows there are 334.9 million US citizens, Musk said on X that the "number of US citizens eligible for social security is closer to 310 million." This would be impossible because the numbers mean that over 92.5% of the US population is eligible for retirement, disability, or survivor benefits.
Last week, Musk stressed that the SSA was next on his DOGE hit list for an audit. During a recent press conference in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, Musk said that DOGE found people who are "probably dead" are still receiving Social Security checks.
"Reexamination of Social Security – we've got people in there that are 150-years-old," Musk said. "Now, do you know anyone who's 150? I don't know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records. They're missing out...' So, you know, that's the case where I think they're probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous – one of the two."
Some Coders Claim It Is A Programming Language Issue
Computer programmers think that the 150 age figure in the data shared by Musk wasn't fraud but an issue with the SSA's benefits system, which was primarily written in the 60-year-old COBOL programming language.
COBOL is rarely used these days and doesn't have a date type. Hence, some implementations rely on a system where all dates are coded to a reference point.
The most widely used reference date is 20th May 1875, when the "Convention du Mètre" international standards-setting conference was held in Paris. These systems default to the reference date when a birth date is missing or incomplete, which means that all those entries in 2025 would display an age of 150.
A 2023 report from the SSA's inspector general revealed that 98% of those aged 100 and above in the Social Security database don't receive any benefits. Furthermore, the report mentioned that the database won't be upgraded, given the high costs.
Overall, Musk is determined to unravel the truth in these numbers. In the past month, DOGE has single-handedly dismantled or restructured major US agencies like USAID, FEMA, and now the FAA in an attempt to cut federal spending.
