'Biggest fraud': Elon Musk says millions listed in social security database are over 100 years old

US department of government efficiency head Elon Musk on Monday claimed to discover "the biggest fraud in history" after he found over 20 million individuals listed in the Social Security database as centenarians.
In a social media post on X, Musk shared a chart showing age distribution from zero to 369 years and noted the number of 'eligible' social security numbers exceeded the US population.
"According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!" Musk said.
According to a report by the New York Post, the revelation was previously documented by the Social Security Administration's (SSA) oversight body. A July 2023 audit identified 18.9 million people listed as centenarians in the database, despite only 86,000 actual centenarians living in the US according to Census data.
A previous March 2015 audit also found 6.5 million individuals over 112 years old with Social Security numbers but no death records, though only 35 people globally had reached that age.
Both audits confirmed that virtually none received Social Security payments, despite records showing individuals born in 1886 and 1893 as living. Approximately 18.4 million hadn't received benefits or reported income for 50 years, suggesting they were deceased.
The report attributes this to historical limitations: "We believe it likely SSA did not receive or record most of the 18.9 million individuals' death information primarily because the individuals died decades ago—before the use of electronic death reporting."
Of those listed, 44,000 were receiving benefits, including 13 over age 112. Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez, the world's oldest man at 112 - a musician, coal miner and gin rummy enthusiast from western New York - passed away shortly after the first audit commenced.
The audits revealed 531 million unique Social Security numbers in circulation, with potential identity fraud cases. The 2015 audit identified roughly $3.1 billion in earnings reported using incorrect Social Security numbers.
Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute noted many numbers belonged to "illegal immigrants paying in, not fraudulent recipients taking out." He told The Post that migrants were "stealing identities of people who are deceased but not marked in the Social Security system."
Experts believe Musk accessed the "Numident" list, containing all numbers issued since 1936. A former SSA employee explained some individuals have multiple numbers, either due to fraud or as victims requiring new numbers.
Other federal agencies have faced similar issues. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation made $127 million in overpayments to a Teamsters' pension fund with nearly 3,500 deceased members during Joe Biden's presidency, later settling with the DOJ.
Ida May Fuller, born in 1874, became the first US Social Security recipient in January 1940, collecting $22,888.92 until her death in 1975.
SSA representatives haven't yet responded to comment requests.