WASHINGTON (AP) — The new head of the Social Security Administration said Wednesday that deceased centenarians are “not necessarily receiving benefits,” contradicting claims that tens of millions of dead people over the age of 100 are getting payments from the agency.

Lee Dudek, the new acting SSA commissioner who was placed in the role by President Donald Trump, gave the clarification after Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk falsely claimed on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly and routinely getting benefits.

EN ESPAÑOL: Gobierno de EE.UU. afirma que millones de muertos reciben cheques del Seguro Social

While it is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people, the numbers thrown out by Trump and Musk are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data.

Here are the facts:

What has the Trump administration said about payments to centenarians?

On Tuesday, Trump said at a press briefing in Florida that “we have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” receiving Social Security benefits. “They’re obviously fraudulent or incompetent,” Trump said.

“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,” he said. He also said that there’s one person in the system listed as 360 years old.

He repeated the false claims while speaking at a...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMirAFBVV95cUxPdDFCNU9RRHpQZzhaNDhrR1R0...