The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has completed its “cleanup” of Social Security death records, the federal initiative has announced.
Why It Matters
DOGE has been inspecting and working on the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) records of deceased claimants.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk, who heads DOGE, claimed that millions of people listed as being well over 100 years old, and therefore likely dead, were collecting benefits.
What To Know
On X, formerly Twitter, DOGE said some 12.3 million individuals with Social Security numbers had been marked as deceased, a task that took 11 weeks. It added that some “complex cases” remained.
Some 7.2 million were originally marked as being between 120 and 139 years old, while about 4.8 million were marked as being between 140 and 159. A group of 124,000 was recorded as being more than 160 years of age.
After 11 weeks, @SocialSecurity has finished this major cleanup initiative: ~12.3M individuals aged 120+ have now been marked as deceased.Some complex cases remain, such as individuals with 2+ different birth dates on file. These will be investigated in a follow-up effort. https://t.co/u942yTxlsG pic.twitter.com/DaXyqx5e4k
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) May 23, 2025
In a review conducted in March 2015, the SSA disclosed that death records had not been updated for 6.5 million individuals over the age of 112, all of whom were presumed deceased. The agency automatically suspends payments to anyone recorded as being 115 years old or older.
In February, Elon Musk brought attention to the out-of-date records by sharing a spreadsheet that highlighted discrepancies. The sheet showed the number of individuals in each age group whose death status was marked as “FALSE!”—indicating they were listed as alive.
The data appeared to be from Numident, the SSA’s comprehensive database of Social Security numbers issued since 1936.
Among the records Musk shared were more than 10 million entries for individuals supposedly aged 100 or older, including one individual recorded as being between 360 and 369 years old.
According to a report by the Brookings Institution, the absence of a death date “doesn’t necessarily mean the person is still alive; it may simply mean the death was never reported.” The nonpartisan think tank added that Numident was introduced at a time when “record-keeping was paper-based and less reliable.”
“Computerized death records were not introduced until 1962, meaning information on deaths prior to that year is often incomplete or inaccurate,” the report said.
Following Musk’s February post, the SSA clarified that benefits were not being distributed to the aged groups in the records.
What People Are Saying
The Department of Government Efficiency wrote on X on Friday: “After 11 weeks, @SocialSecurity has finished this major cleanup initiative: ~12.3M individuals aged 120+ have now been marked as deceased.”
The Social Security Administration said in a statement issued on March 5: “The data reported in the media represent people who do not have a date of death associated with their record. While these people may not be receiving benefits, it is important for the agency to maintain accurate and complete records.”
What Happens Next
DOGE said on Friday, “Some complex cases remain, such as individuals with 2+ different birth dates on file.” It said those would “be investigated in a follow-up effort.”
The post Social Security Lists Over 12 Million People as Dead appeared first on Newsweek.
