Elon Musk has once again thrust himself into the center of the political and social debate. The tycoon and owner of X (formerly Twitter) has dropped a bombshell that has perplexed the American public: he claims that millions of deceased people are still receiving Social Security benefits, resulting in a massive fraud.
He has been forthright: “there is a whole generation of financial vampires who are draining the system without anyone doing anything.” Is this real? What do we understand about this?
Earthquake in the federal authorities
Yes, this statement has set off all of the alarms in Washington, and both the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been forced to immediately launch an investigation into the Administration’s databases.
Is this a genuine scandal, or just another episode in Musk’s media campaign against the federal government?
What does Musk say?
Musk revealed the shocking news in a post to his X profile on the 17th. In it, he published a table that established a relationship between the number of people in each age group who checked the “Death” box in the database, which was false.
Official numbers: a real problem?
It’s shocking that millions of deceased people continue to receive Social Security checks, but this is not a new phenomenon.
According to a 2023 report from the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General, there are 18.9 million Social Security numbers linked to people born in 1920 or earlier who have not been officially recorded as deceased, but are aware of it and are disqualified from receiving any type of payment (logically).
In fact, according to the same report, only 44,000 people would be receiving benefits from those 18.9 million unupdated records, which is a relatively low number within the US pension system.
Who is investigating and what will be the consequences?
DOGE has announced that it will conduct a thorough review of the SSA database to determine whether there was negligence, but the investigation has also raised concerns about potential leaks of sensitive information, as some critics believe Musk is using his influence to gain access to confidential data without proper controls.
Meanwhile, from the White House, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump administration’s press secretary, has attempted to defuse the situation by stating that the investigation will have no effect on payments to retirees who are already receiving them and that the only goal of this investigation is to prevent public funds from being wasted.
But is there fraud or not?
The answer is no; as previously stated, what happened was a misunderstanding. The SSA establishes the death status in the master death file, but after digitizing the data, many of those born before 1920 were left in “limbo,” but they were not receiving social security benefits or wasting public funds; their deaths had simply not been registered.
What’s up with Musk and Social Security?
Well, as reported in various media, Musk’s DOGE has attempted to privately access Social Security data, and the acting SSA commissioner resigned last weekend, adding fuel to the fire.
However, Musk is on “a tightrope” because he has had several “beefs” with Social Security, so it would not be surprising if he is attempting to discredit the administration with this.
Trump’s press accused Musk of instilling fear in the population (because many of our elders believed they would lose their social pension) and stating that no one should be concerned about losing their payments because the tycoon wishes to review the data.
