Washington (AP) – The Trump administration wrongly claims that tens of millions of deaths over 100 years old receive social security payments.
In the past few days, President Donald Trump And Billionaire councilor Elon Musk said on social networks and in press points that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old get the advantages – a “huge problem,” wrote Musk, like his Government Department of Effectiveness Discuss in federal agencies to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.
It is true that inappropriate payments have been made, including some to the dead. But the figures thrown by Musk and the White House are overestimated and distort social security data.
Here are the facts:
What does the Trump administration say on centenarian payments?
Trump on Tuesday said at a press briefing in Florida that “we have millions and millions of people over 100” receiving social security benefits. “They are obviously fraudulent or incompetent,” said Trump.
“If you withdraw all these millions of social security people, suddenly, we have a very powerful social security with people aged 80 and 90, but not 200 years,” he said. He also said that there was a person in the system listed as 360 years.
Late Monday, Musk published a multitude of messages on its X social media platform, in particular: “Maybe Twilight is real and there are many vampires that collect Social Security” and “having tens of millions People marked in Social Security as “living” when they are definitely dead, this is a huge problem. Obviously. Some of these people were alive before America exists as a country. Think about it for a second… “
What is the size of a problem with social security fraud?
A July 2024 report From the Inspector General of Social Security declares that from the 2015 to 2022 exercises, the agency paid nearly $ 8.6 billions of services, including $ 71.8 billion – or less than 1% – in inappropriate payments . Most erroneous payments were overpayed for living people.
In addition, in early January, the US Treasury recovered more than $ 31 million In a variety of federal payments – not only social security payments – which have gone badly to the dead, a recovery that the former treasury official, David Lebryk, was “only the tip of the iceberg”.
The money was recovered as part of a five -month pilot program after the Congress gave the Treasury Department temporary access to Social Security Administration The “Dossier of Death Death” for three years as part of the Omnibus credits bill in 2021. SSA maintains the most complete federal database of deceased, and the file contains more than 142 million of files, which date back to 1899, according to the treasure.
The Treasury estimated in January that it would recover more than $ 215 million during its period of access to three years, which takes place from December 2023 to 2026.
So, tens of millions of people over 100 receive services?
No.
Part of the confusion comes from the Social Security software system based on the Cobol programming language, which has a lack of date. This means that certain entries with missing or incomplete birth dates will be definitively at a point of reference over 150 years ago. The press organization was wired for the first time on the use of the Cobol programming language at the Social Security Administration.
In addition, a series of reports From the Inspector General of Social Security Administration in March 2023 and July 2024, according to the agency, the agency did not establish new system to properly annotate the death of death as deceased. However, this does not mean that these people received services.
The agency has decided not to update the database due to the cost of doing so, which would increase more than $ 9 million.
A July 2023 Social Security Social Security Report says that “almost none of the numbers discussed in the report currently receives payments in SSA”. And, in September 2015, the agency automatically stopped payments for people over 1155.
What are the concerns about disinformation on social security payments?
Chuck Blahous, a main research strategist at the George Mason University Mercatus Center, said: “Two applause for Elon Musk if he can uproot and put an end to inappropriate payments.”
But to choose the places of the federal government where the error rates are high, “social security would be near the list, not close to the summit,” said Blahous. “The inappropriate payment rates of Medicaid are quite substantial and have skyrocketed after the expansion of Medicaid of the ACA.”
“By all means-continue all the inappropriate payments that are found, but do not like it that this is where the greatest financial problems in the system,” he said.
Sita Nataraj Slavov, professor of public policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government of George Mason, said that Musk and Trump’s statements will make people believe that solutions to government financial problems are simpler than they do not appear.
“The real concern is that this assertion can induce people to induce people by thinking that there is an easy solution to the financial problems of Social Security – that we can somehow restore solvency without making sacrifices thanks to higher taxes or lower advantages, “said Slavov. “It’s just not true.”
What does the White House say on criticism?
Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the White House, referred to the report of the Inspector General of Social Security.
“A previous survey revealed that the SSA paid at least $ 71.8 billion in inappropriate payments,” she said. “Social Security Administration now strives to find even more waste, fraud and mistreatment in the total administration effort to protect American taxpayers.”
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