President Donald Trump said his administration is investigating what he described as “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” in the nation’s Social Security program, during his address to Congress on Tuesday.
Trump pointed to government databases listing millions of Social Security recipients that are over 100 years old, some of whom are reportedly “over 160 years old.” He also claimed one person who was allegedly 360 years old was listed in the database.
“We have a healthier country than I thought,” Trump quipped, nodding to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
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“Money is being paid to many of them,” he added, noting that this issue “really hurts Social Security and harms our country.”
The comments come after billionaire Elon Musk, also in attendance on Tuesday, claimed that a preliminary review of Social Security records by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found evidence that the safety net program is paying benefits to 150-year-olds.
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Musk also posted a picture of a spreadsheet he said was from the Social Security database showing the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to false. It showed more than 17 million such records for people over the age of 100.
After DOGE, which aims to eliminate $2 trillion in wasteful government spending, gained access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) internal systems, a Treasury Department official told Congress that the tech executive would have “read-only access” to the government’s payment system, emphasizing that the agency remains committed to safeguarding the system.
In 2015, the SSA and its inspector general looked into the number of people in the system with no death record who were listed as being over the age of 112. SSA found 6.5 million number holders aged 112 or older with no death information in the system, but noted that other records suggested the majority of them were deceased.
Of those, SSA issued payments to 266 number holders — though the IG’s review indicated only 13 beneficiaries were likely age 112 or older, while in the remaining 253 cases there were discrepancies in SSA’s records that indicated the beneficiary wasn’t actually that old.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Landon Mion contributed to the report.
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