Posted on 02/21/2025 3:28:23 AM PST by LouAvul
Many Americans who died years ago are still listed as alive at the Social Security Administration
It's a stunning claim about government waste, but one that is not true.
President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk say the Social Security Administration is sending out fraudulent payments in the names of millions of people listed as 100 years or older who've been dead for years.
"They're obviously fraudulent or incompetent," Trump said during a news conference Feb. 18. "If you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden we have a very powerful Social Security."
Trump echoed Musk who posted online, "Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as 'ALIVE' when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem."
Musk is correct that many people are erroneously classified as among the living by the Social Security Administration.
Nearly 19 million people aged 100 or older were still listed as alive, including about 11 million born in 1899 or earlier who had not been removed from the books, according to a 2023 report by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General.
The report discovered just 44,000 centenarians actually got money from the agency. It's unclear how many of those checks went to living recipients, but the number is about half of all Americans alive who've reached triple digits. The report said "almost none" of the people likely dead but still on the Social Security rolls actually had payments sent out in their names.
Multiple audits over the years have faulted the Social Security Administration for not doing a better job updating records to reflect the deaths of millions of Americans. Databases with outdated information about Social Security beneficiaries invite fraud, auditors have found.
Musk has also said payments were going out to people in the system aged 150 years old, but that is likely also false. Social Security systems automatically cut off benefits for anyone recorded as 115 or older.
2 NEWS OK is full of it.
Besides people over 100 and likely dead still getting social security, I believe people are getting multiple social security checks using the same social security number, much of this is going fund illegal aliens IMO.
It’s also my belief that if you cut just 50% of the fraud out of social security, the social security fund would be over funded not destined to go bankrupt as the government tells us.
What specifically is false there?
It’s owned by Scripps Local Media.
Nuff said.
I wonder if it had anything to do with survivor benefits options?
WTF is a “2 News Ok”?! An arm of Politico? PBS?
Pick an age 100 or 115 whatever. Then have SSA do personal FTF interviews with each recipient to confirm.
I’m not sure that’s correct. I haven’t seen any information from DOGE that says anything about who is actually receiving SS payments — just the glaring errors in the database of SS numbers and the demographic information about the people attached to them.
Look to nursing homes to start, senior living centers, etc.
Then any “heirs” the person may have had.
If payments were going out, they most likely were direct deposit.
Start with this gem
Nearly 19 million people aged 100 or older were still listed as alive, including about 11 million born in 1899 or earlier who had not been removed from the books, according to a 2023 report by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General
Say average check $1000/month * 12 months =$12,000 per person per year. Multiply that by 19 MILLION and “potential” fraud is $228 BILLION PER YEAR.
Simple dirty data causes BILLIONS IN FRAUD WASTE AND ABUSE!
Sloppy government systems run by sloppy/lazy government employees.
We'll see about that. If Musk says there's fraud, there's probably fraud.
They have NO PROOF THAT THESE PEOPLE AREN’T GETTING CHECKS!
The dead obviously aren’t getting the payments. It’s the relatives or even maybe others.
The Key word is -— “ likely” which can be interchanged with-— “hopefully” contextually accepted of coarse for their agenda driven so called news
This is a lie. Musk and Trump DID NOT SAY millions or tens of millions were getting payments from Social Security. They said millions who are obviously dead are listed as alive in the Social Security database and that this creates the possibility for massive fraud.
That is not only true, it is undeniably true. In fact, nobody has denied that the database has long been corrupted in exactly this fashion. What they said was that few of those obviously dead people were getting payments. That has yet to be checked.
DUH !
Does Social Security check with the coroner’s offices in the counties and cities? Are those offices required to report deaths to Social Security? All checks are transmitted electronically. If someone dies, and no relatives claim the deposits, the banks close the accounts for inactivity after a few years, which vary according to state escheat laws. The inactive accounts are then transferred to the state treasurer. If there is misuse of funds, it has to be on some very large scale. Lets see if DOGE can uncover what is happening.
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