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Elon Musk’s chart doesn’t prove millions of centenarians fraudulently get Social Security benefits

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Elon Musk walks along the Colonnade after arriving with President Donald Trump on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP) Elon Musk walks along the Colonnade after arriving with President Donald Trump on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

Elon Musk walks along the Colonnade after arriving with President Donald Trump on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP)

Madison Czopek
By Madison Czopek February 21, 2025
Amy Sherman
By Amy Sherman February 21, 2025

If Your Time is short

  • We did not find evidence that millions of implausibly old people receive Social Security payments. 

  • Recent Social Security Administration data shows that about 89,000 people ages 99 and older receive Social Security payments.

  • The acting Social Security commissioner said that people older than 100 who do not have a date of death associated with their Social Security record “are not necessarily receiving benefits.”

Elon Musk, the billionaire advising President Donald Trump how to cut federal spending, is taking aim at the Social Security Administration and giving the impression millions of implausibly old people may be getting benefits payments.

"According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," Musk wrote Feb. 16 on X, with an accompanying chart.

(Screenshot from X)

The chart, which shows age brackets encompassing infants to 369 years old, adds up to more than 398 million people — more than the estimated 341 million U.S. population. When users pointed this out, Musk said, "Yes, there are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history."

We do not know which Social Security database Musk was referring to, nor did he specify in his post. 

As he signed executive orders Feb. 18, President Donald Trump nodded to Musk’s data, saying that "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."

Musk’s chart could have people believe that more than 20.7 million people ages 100 and older are receiving Social Security benefits. 

Indeed, on Facebook, a Trump fan page with more than 4 million followers referenced Musk’s tweet and said, "Elon Musk discovers millions over the age of 140 are receiving social security! 695 recipients are over 180 - 189." 

This is unproven.

About 68 million people receive Social Security benefits. As of December, there were about 89,000 retired worker beneficiaries ages 99 or older. 

Government databases may classify someone as 150 years old for reasons peculiar to the complex Social Security database or because of missing data, but that doesn’t mean that millions of payments are delivered fraudulently to people with implausible ages. 

The Social Security Administration inspector general in 2021 found $298 million in payments after death to some 24,000 beneficiaries from 1998 to 2019. (The government recovered about $84 million, the report said.)

Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek said in a Feb. 19 statement that people older than 100 in the Social Security database "are not necessarily receiving benefits." 

We asked the White House press office to connect us with Musk or the Department of Government Efficiency and received no response. We also emailed press contacts at Musk’s companies SpaceX and X and did not hear back.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed PolitiFact to a 2024 inspector general report that found the Social Security Administration sent almost $71.8 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 to 2022, which includes Trump’s first term. That is less than 1% of overall payments in that timeframe. 

Improper payments can be underpayments or overpayments. They can happen because of beneficiaries’ failure to report necessary information or the administration’s failure to update records, the 2024 inspector general report said. Improper payments are a longstanding concern for the Social Security Administration, though they represent a small share of all payments.

Government audits show fraud potential, not historical mass fraud

Under a 1978 law, inspectors general audit the federal government looking for fraud, waste and abuse. They are required to provide semiannual reports to Congress and report to agency heads if they find egregious problems. 

Two inspector general audits — in 2015 and 2023 — examined Social Security number data for millions of implausibly old people listed in the Social Security database. Both audits found that "almost none" associated with those numbers were receiving payments.

The 2015 audit warned that missing death information could lead to identity fraud or erroneous payments by federal agencies. That audit found that of a sample of more than 6 million Social Security number holders, "only 13 beneficiaries were likely age 112 or older." 

The 2023 audit found approximately 18.9 million people born in 1920 or earlier who did not have death information on their Social Security record. But "almost none" were being sent payments.

The audit found that the people were likely dead, since they were 100 or older, had no earnings in the past 50 years and received no payments.

In reports from 2001 to 2024, the Social Security Administration inspector general "identified over $700 million in improper payments tied to death information not being within (Social Security Administration’s) records," for 12,979 beneficiaries, said Rebecca Rose, spokesperson for the Social Security Administration inspector general.

Lack of death dates creates potential for improper payments

Experts said that Social Security fraud happens, but balked at the idea that millions of dead people were receiving benefits. 

"Any program this large probably has some level of fraud," said Jeffrey R. Brown, a professor of finance at the University of Illinois. "But I am quite confident that the level of fraud is quite small relative to the size of the program and that Elon is unquestionably wrong to suggest it is the biggest fraud in history."

Ronald Gunia, a retired longtime director in the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General who worked on the 2015 and 2023 reports, said that incomplete data can increase chances for fraud, and that Musk was correct to highlight data problems that remain unresolved despite years of audits. 

"Very few of those people are getting benefits, but their Social Security numbers are live and valid, and that’s the potential," Gunia said. 

The federal government has taken some steps to resolve incomplete death records, and there are systems in place to block payments to anyone born more than 115 years ago.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird and Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.

RELATED: Are 150-year-old Americans receiving Social Security checks, as Elon Musk said?

RELATED: Trump, Musk claim government 'fraud' without showing proof. How common is federal fraud, abuse?

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Our Sources

Elon Musk, X post, Feb. 16, 2025

Elon Musk, X post, Feb. 17, 2025

Elon Musk, X post, Feb. 17, 2025

White House, President Trump Signs Executive Orders at Mar-a-Lago, Feb. 18, 2025

Social Security Administration, Statement from Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner, about Commitment to Agency Transparency and Protecting Benefits and Information, Feb. 19, 2025

Office of the Inspector General Social Security Administration, Numberholders Age 112 or Older Who Did Not Have a Death Entry on the Numident, March 2015

Office of the Inspector General Social Security Administration, Numberholders Age 100 or Older Who Did Not Have Death Information on the Numident, July 2023

Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Hearing on examining improper payments and errors in the death master file, March 16, 2015

Social Security, Program operations manual, Oct. 28, 2022

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Policy Basics: Top Ten Facts about Social Security, May 31, 2024

PolitiFact, Are 150-year-old Americans receiving Social Security checks, as Elon Musk said? Feb. 17, 2025

New York Post, Elon Musk ‘uncovers’ 20M in Social Security database over age 100 — here’s why they’re listed and don’t get benefits, Feb. 17, 2025

Snopes, Analyzing Musk's claim that '150-year-olds' are collecting Social Security payments, Feb. 18, 2025

WIRED, No, 150-Year-Olds Aren't Collecting Social Security Benefits, Feb. 17, 2025

Reason, Elon Musk Implausibly Claims 'Competence and Caring' Can Cut the Federal Budget Deficit in Half, Feb. 12, 2025

Social Security Administration, Program Operations Manual System (POMS), accessed Feb. 19. 2025

Alex Nowrasteh, X posts, Feb. 17, 2025

Facebook post, Feb. 17, 2025

Telephone interview, Ronald Gunia, former director of the Dallas Audit Division as the inspector general for Social Security, Feb. 18, 2025

Email interview, Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, Feb. 18, 2025

Email interview with C. Eugene Steuerle, fellow at the Urban Institute and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department during the Reagan administration, Feb. 18, 2025

Emailed statement from Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, Feb. 18, 2025

Email interview with Jeffrey R. Brown, professor of finance at the University of Illinois, Feb. 18, 2025

Email interview with J. Michael Collins, University of Wisconsin professor of public affairs, Feb. 18, 2025

Email interview, Rebecca Rose, Office of the Inspector General press officer, Feb. 19, 2025

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Elon Musk’s chart doesn’t prove millions of centenarians fraudulently get Social Security benefits