The Department of Government Efficiency has turned its attention to the Social Security Administration database after Elon Musk claimed that tens of millions of dead people are still collecting benefits.
DOGE responded on Monday, saying it was "looking into this," in reply to a Musk post on X Sunday that stated:
"According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!" Musk's post read with a screenshot of a spreadsheet. "Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security."
Musk's and DOGE's efforts at the SSA come as they face pushback over concerns about their access to sensitive data at the SSA and other agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Education.
The issue of Social Security numbers belonging to people too old to be alive is not new and does not imply widespread fraud. A 2023 audit by the SSA Office of the Inspector General found that 18.9 million Social Security number holders born in 1920 or earlier were not marked as deceased, due to technological changes. However, most of these individuals were not receiving benefits.
More:Social Security's top official resigns after clash with Elon Musk's DOGE
Yes, but the SSA knows many are presumed dead, and close to none of them receive payments.
The SSA uses death reports from a number of sources to denote when a person with a...
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Walgreens has agreed to pay up to $350 million for illegally filling unlawful opioid prescriptions and submitting false claims, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern Distric...