New Social Safety leader refutes claims of deceased other folks over 100 years outdated getting exams

People who find themselves indexed as over 100 years outdated within the Social Safety device are “now not essentially receiving advantages,” the brand new head of the company stated Wednesday, contradicting claims that tens of thousands and thousands of lifeless other folks over that age are receiving exams.

As a substitute, the ones folks “are other folks in our information with a Social Safety quantity who shouldn’t have a date of dying related to their document,” stated Lee Dudek, the brand new appearing Social Safety Management commissioner who used to be positioned within the function by way of President Trump, within the Feb. 19 commentary. 

The explanation comes after Mr. Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk claimed on social media and in press briefings that people who find themselves 100, 200 or even 300 years outdated are improperly and mechanically getting advantages.

As a result of Social Safety information don’t seem to be public, it isn’t conceivable to independently examine Musk’s declare. On the other hand, the Social Safety Management mechanically stops bills to people who find themselves older than 115 years outdated, an company rule that has been in impact since September 2015. 

Musk, whose Division of Executive Potency is looking for to root out fraud, waste and abuse, issued a slew of posts on his social media platform X on Monday evening, together with: “Possibly Twilight is actual and there are numerous vampires accumulating Social Safety.” 

To make sure, there are cases of overpayments and fraud inside the Social Safety device. A July 2024 file from Social Safety’s inspector common said that from fiscal years 2015 thru 2022, the company paid out nearly $8.6 trillion in advantages, together with $71.8 billion — or lower than 1% — in mistaken bills. Lots of the faulty bills have been overpayments to residing other folks.

Social Safety and COBOL

A part of the confusion comes from Social Safety’s device device in response to the COBOL programming language, which has a loss of date kind. Which means some entries with lacking or incomplete beginning dates will default to a reference level of greater than 150 years in the past. 

The scoop group WIRED first reported at the company’s use of COBOL, a programming language which is greater than 60 years outdated.

Moreover, a chain of reviews from the Social Safety Management’s inspector common in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the company has now not established a brand new device to correctly annotate dying knowledge in its database, which integrated kind of 18.9 million Social Safety numbers of other folks born in 1920 or previous however weren’t marked as deceased. This doesn’t imply, then again, that those folks have been receiving advantages.

The company made up our minds to not replace the database as a result of the associated fee to take action, which might run upward of $9 million.

A July 2023 Social Safety OIG file states that “nearly not one of the numberholders mentioned within the file recently obtain SSA bills.” 

DOGE on the Social Safety Management

Dudek, who used to be named appearing leader of the Social Safety Management after the resignation of Michelle King, reiterated the company’s dedication to transparency. The final strains of the commentary said fresh reporting about other folks older than 100 receiving advantages from the company.

Within the commentary, Dudek added that the company’s precedence is still “paying beneficiaries the correct quantity on the proper time, and offering different essential products and services other folks depend on from us.” 

He famous that DOGE body of workers “CANNOT make adjustments to company methods, receive advantages bills, or different knowledge. They just have READ get right of entry to.”

“I’m assured that with DOGE’s lend a hand and the dedication of our government staff and personnel, that Social Safety will proceed to ship for the American other folks,” Dudek stated.

Treasury clawbacks

In early January, the U.S. Treasury clawed again greater than $31 million in quite a few federal bills— now not simply Social Safety bills— that improperly went to lifeless other folks, a restoration that former Treasury legitimate David Lebryk stated used to be “simply the top of the iceberg.”

The cash used to be reclaimed as a part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave the Division of Treasury brief get right of entry to to the Social Safety Management’s “Complete Dying Grasp Record” for 3 years as a part of the omnibus appropriations invoice in 2021. The SSA maintains essentially the most whole federal database of people who have died, and the report incorporates greater than 142 million information, which return to 1899, consistent with the Treasury.

Treasury estimated in January that it might get well greater than $215 million all over its three-year get right of entry to duration, which runs from December 2023 thru 2026.

Chuck Blahous, a senior analysis strategist on the Mercatus Heart at George Mason College, stated, “Two cheers for Elon Musk if he can root out and put a prevent to mistaken bills.”

However to pick out the puts within the federal authorities the place error charges are top, “Social Safety can be close to the ground of the listing, now not close to the highest,” Blahous stated. “Medicaid mistaken fee charges are moderately really extensive, and soared after the Medicaid growth of the ACA.”

“Via all manner — move after any mistaken bills which are discovered, however let’s now not faux that is the place the device’s largest monetary issues are,” he stated.

Sita Nataraj Slavov, a professor of public coverage on the Schar Faculty of Coverage and Executive at George Mason College, stated the claims by way of Musk and Trump will make other folks suppose the answers to the federal government’s monetary issues are more practical than they seem.

“The actual worry is this declare might deceive other folks into considering there may be a very simple repair to Social Safety’s monetary issues — that we will in some way repair solvency with out making sacrifices thru upper taxes or decrease advantages,” Slavov stated. “That is merely now not true.”

Karoline Leavitt, the White Area spokesperson, referred again to the Social Safety’s inspector common file.

“A prior investigation printed the SSA paid no less than $71.8 billion in mistaken bills,” she stated. “The Social Safety Management is now operating to search out much more waste, fraud, and abuse within the Management’s whole-of-government effort to offer protection to American taxpayers.”