Tesla and X CEO-turned-special authorities worker Elon Musk claimed to uncover “the most important fraud in historical past” when he stumbled throughout greater than 20 million folks listed within the Social Safety database as over the age of 100 years outdated.
“In keeping with the Social Safety database, these are the numbers of individuals in every age bucket with the demise subject set to FALSE!” Musk posted on X late Sunday, exhibiting a chart of ages starting from zero to 369 years outdated.
“Perhaps Twilight is actual and there are plenty of vampires gathering Social Safety,” he joked, including that “there are FAR extra ‘eligible’ social safety [sic] numbers than there are residents within the USA. This is likely to be the most important fraud in historical past.”
Nevertheless, Musk’s bombshell has lengthy been recognized by the Social Safety Administration’s (SSA) watchdog, which launched an audit in July 2023 exhibiting that 18.9 million folks listed as 100 years or older — however not lifeless — had been within the database.
Solely 86,000 folks residing within the US on the time had been truly centenarians, in response to the Census Bureau.
The identical inspector basic’s workplace present in a March 2015 audit that 6.5 million folks with Social Safety numbers however no demise data had been over 112 years outdated — regardless of simply 35 folks on the planet having reached that ripe outdated age.
In each audits, the inspectors basic concluded that “nearly none” had been truly cashing Social Safety checks — regardless of the evident accounting errors figuring out folks born in 1886 and 1893 as nonetheless residing, in two excessive circumstances.
Roughly 18.4 million uncovered within the 2023 audit had not acquired advantages or reported earnings for 50 years, that means they had been seemingly lifeless.
“We imagine it seemingly SSA didn’t obtain or report a lot of the 18.9 million people’ demise data primarily as a result of the people died a long time in the past—earlier than the usage of digital demise reporting,” the report states.
Round 44,000 had been truly receiving advantages, with 13 of these older than 112.
The oldest residing man on this planet — Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez, a 112-year-old self-taught musician, coal miner and gin rummy aficionado from western New York — had died months after the primary audit started.
The audits, nevertheless, did reveal that round 531 million distinctive Social Safety numbers are in circulation — and that “hundreds” could also be in use to commit id fraud.
The 2015 audit confirmed about $3.1 billion in earnings reported by employers or self-employed people who weren’t the precise Social Safety quantity holder.
Alex Nowrasteh, Cato Institute vice chairman for financial and social coverage research, replied to Musk’s tweet by noting that plenty of Social Safety numbers for folks older than age 100 had been “unlawful immigrants paying in, not fraudulent recipients taking out.”
“By all means, clear up SSA and mark these folks as deceased. However the price of doing so is much less income going into Social Safety,” Nowrasteh stated. “Perhaps that’s nice, SS ought to be shut down anyway, however that could be a draw back.”
Nowrasteh defined to The Publish in a Monday telephone interview that migrants had been “stealing identities of people who find themselves deceased however not marked within the Social Safety system.”
Many make use of a “thriving” black marketplace for each id theft and id loans — the latter of which may be obtained with simply an ID and Social Safety quantity — to have the ability to work within the US.
Each Nowrasteh and different observers imagine that Musk was pulling from a Social Safety record often called “Numident,” which incorporates each quantity handed out since the advantages program began in 1936.
“Some folks have multiple quantity, sometimes as a result of they’re committing fraud, however extra often as a result of they’ve had fraud dedicated towards them and so they had been issued a brand new clear quantity,” a former SSA worker informed journalist Jesse Singal.
“[A]lso you might have individuals who acquired a Social Safety quantity after which left the US, like short-term immigrant staff,” the worker added. “However there’s a long run acknowledged downside with SSA’s databases not marking as lifeless individuals who have died.”
Funds to lifeless beneficiaries have additionally occurred in different federal businesses.
Beneath former President Joe Biden, the Pension Profit Assure Company, a authorities company, made $127 million in overpayments to a Teamsters’ pension fund with almost 3,500 lifeless members — earlier than reaching a settlement with the DOJ to return the funds.
The primary US citizen to obtain Social Safety funds was Ida Might Fuller, who was born in 1874, retired in 1939 and was on the federal government dole by January 1940. She collected $22,888.92 in advantages earlier than her demise in 1975.
SSA reps didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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