DOGE Says ‘Major Cleanup’ of Social Security Records Underway

‘More work still to be done,’ the Department of Government Efficiency stated.

Blank Social Security checks are run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia, Pa., in a file photo. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has said that the Social Security Administration has undertaken a “major cleanup” of its records of individuals aged 120 or more this month.

“For the past two weeks, [the Social Security Administration] has begun a major cleanup of their records. Approximately 3.2 million numberholders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked as deceased. More work still to be done,” DOGE wrote in a post on social media platform X early on March 18.

The organization, led by Elon Musk, showed a chart that broke down the records by age brackets, showing that more than 817,000 records with individuals aged 120 to 129 were removed in March. More than 1.1 million accounts with ages ranging from 130 to 139, more than 1.1 million accounts with ages of 140 to 149, and more than 186,000 with accounts aged 150 to 159 were removed this month, the chart shows.

Over the past weekend, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued a statement on its death records and that “more than three million deaths are reported to the Social Security Administration each year and explains that the agency’s records are highly accurate.”

“Of these millions of death reports received each year, less than one-third of 1 percent are erroneously reported deaths that need to be corrected,” the agency stated, noting that it receives death reports from a number of sources, including family members of the deceased, states, funeral homes, financial institutions, and others.

The agency then advised people who suspect they’ve been incorrectly listed as deceased to quickly contact Social Security to inform them.

“They should be prepared to bring at least one piece of current (not expired) original form of identification,” the SSA stated. “Social Security takes immediate action to correct its records and the agency can provide a letter that the error has been corrected that can be shared with other organizations, agencies, and employers.”

DOGE’s activity occurred about a month after Musk said a federal database suggested that more than 12 million eligible recipients are listed as being aged 120 or older. At the time, it showed that more than 1,000 were listed as between the ages of 220 and 229, with at least one person listed at age 360.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Lee Dudek, who was appointed recently by the Trump administration, issued a statement days later to clarify DOGE’s findings. The individuals highlighted by Musk “are not necessarily receiving benefits,” Dudek said.

Dudek said in his statement that he wants to “acknowledge recent reporting about the number of people older than age 100 who may be receiving benefits from Social Security” and that the “reported data are people in [the SSA’s] records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record.”

At about the same time, President Donald Trump, who created DOGE by an executive order in January, said at a press briefing in Florida that it’s “a very positive thing” that the agency highlighted the issue.

“If you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden, we have a very powerful Social Security with people that are 80 and 70 and 90, but not 200 years old,” the president said.

In July 2023, the SSA’s Inspector General’s Office found that the agency had not updated its benefits system to update the death information for about 18.9 million people born in 1920 or before that date. According to the report, “officials also noted that almost none of the 18.9 million numberholders currently receive SSA payments.”

The Epoch Times contacted the SSA for comment on March 18 and did not receive a response by publication time.