Acting Social Security commissioner clarifies claims about people older than 100 getting benefits
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner clarified claims promoted by Elon Musk and President Trump about centenarians receiving monthly payouts.
"I also want to acknowledge recent reporting about the number of people older than age 100 who may be receiving benefits from Social Security,” Lee Dudek said in a statement Wednesday.
“The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits."
His comments come after the president suggested millions of deceased individuals were listed as alive in the agency’s records.
“If you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden we have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90, but not 200 years old,” Trump stated in support of a probe by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk doubled down on the argument after gaining read access to the administration’s portal.
Former acting Commissioner Michelle King resigned Tuesday over the data, citing concerns with its examination by a nonelected official.
“Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as ‘ALIVE’ when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem. Obviously. Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country,” Musk wrote on X with a screenshot of an alleged internal database showcasing citizens who are at least 100 years old.
Reports have outlined a processing issue with the COBOL code used by the administration that means it does not properly annotate death information, according to The Associated Press.
However, all of the people listed in the national system do not receive monthly benefits.
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