In a striking revelation during his address to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that his administration is investigating what he termed “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” within the nation’s Social Security program. Trump cited government databases listing millions of Social Security recipients over the age of 100, including reports of individuals as old as 160 years, and one alleged case of a 360-year-old beneficiary.
“We have a healthier country than I thought,” Trump quipped, directing his remark toward Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. He emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating, “Money is being paid to many of them,” highlighting how such irregularities could significantly impact Social Security funding and harm the nation’s financial integrity.
The President’s remarks follow claims made by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who was also in attendance. Musk stated that a preliminary review of Social Security records conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered payments being made to individuals allegedly aged 150 years or older.
Fox Business reports that in order to support his claim, Musk shared an image of a spreadsheet purportedly sourced from the Social Security Administration (SSA) database. The document reportedly displayed over 17 million records of individuals older than 100 years with no death records, suggesting that fraudulent payments might be occurring at a large scale.
Following DOGE’s access to SSA’s internal systems, a Treasury Department official assured Congress that Musk had been granted only “read-only access” to the government’s payment system. The official underscored that safeguarding the integrity of the Social Security system remains a top priority for the agency.
In 2015, the SSA and its inspector general conducted an inquiry into the number of individuals in the database with no recorded date of death who were listed as being over the age of 112. Their investigation revealed 6.5 million such number holders, though additional records suggested most were, in fact, deceased.
Among them, SSA continued to issue payments to 266 individuals. However, an inspector general review found that only 13 beneficiaries were likely to be 112 years or older, while the remaining 253 cases exhibited discrepancies indicating inaccuracies in SSA records.