DOGE Says Nearly 11 Million Social Security Records Updated in Major Cleanup

DOGE has been conducting the cleanup operation for several weeks.

A woman walks past a Social Security Administration building in Flushing neighborhood of New York City on Feb. 10, 2021. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

The Department of Government Efficiency said on April 24 that records for millions of recipients aged 120 or older have been updated as part of a “major cleanup” at the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The department has been conducting the cleanup for several weeks as it seeks to crack down on wasteful government spending and fraud. About 11 million social security recipients listed as being aged 120 or older have now been marked as deceased, DOGE stated in a social media post.

Another 1.4 million records are expected to be updated within two weeks, the post stated. DOGE previously reported on March 18 that 3.2 million records had been marked as deceased.

A chart shared by DOGE on Thursday showed that more than 2.7 million records of people aged 120 to 129 have been removed over the past several weeks. More than 3.4 million accounts belonging to individuals aged 130 to 139 were removed, and more than 3.3 million records of individuals aged 140 to 149 were marked as deceased.

Another 1.3 million accounts of people aged 150 to 159 were also removed this month, the chart showed. In total, 10,926,833 accounts were marked as deceased, according to the chart.

The update comes after Elon Musk, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, said in February that millions of deceased individuals were still receiving benefits despite being older than 120.

The tech entrepreneur posted on social media platform X a screenshot of a federal database showing that more than 12 million Social Security recipients were listed as older than 120.

Two of the individuals listed on the database were marked as in the age ranges of 240–249 and 360–369. More than a thousand people on the database were listed as being in the age range of 220–229.

“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to false!” Musk wrote. “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”

A 2024 report from the SSA Inspector General acknowledged that the agency mistakenly made some payments.

From 2015 to 2022, SSA paid almost $8.6 trillion in benefits and made approximately $71.8 billion, or 0.84 percent, in improper payments, most of which were overpayments, according to the report.

The report noted that improper payments have been a “longstanding challenge” for the SSA and that, while the agency has taken actions to address this challenge, “there is more it needs to do.”

“Without better access to data, increased automation, systems modernization, and policy or legislative changes, improper payments will continue to be an issue into the future,” the report stated.

Earlier this month, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO also said that “fake people born in the future” were filing fraudulent unemployment benefits, pointing to a recent DOGE survey of unemployment insurance claims.

According to the survey, since 2020, 24,500 individuals above the age of 115 have claimed a total of $59 million in unemployment benefits, while 28,000 claimants between the ages of 1 and 5 have received $254 million in benefits.

A further 9,700 people with birth dates more than 15 years in the future were paid $69 million in benefits, DOGE stated.

Unemployment fraud occurs when a claimant knowingly submits false information, collects benefits when knowing they are ineligible, or intentionally fails to report wages or income while collecting full benefits, according to the Department of Labor.

Individuals who fraudulently collect unemployment benefits face a fine of no less than 15 percent of the amount of the fraudulent payment.

Additional penalties under state unemployment insurance laws may also include criminal prosecution with fines and/or incarceration and permanent loss of eligibility for unemployment compensation.

The Epoch Times has contacted a spokesperson for the SSA for comment.