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By Aliss Higham
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The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has issued a new update on its "major cleanup" of death records at the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Newsweek has contacted DOGE for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
Why It Matters
Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is spearheading President Donald Trump's federal spending cuts, claimed in February that millions of people over the age of 100 could be collecting Social Security benefits.
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However, the SSA clarified that the figures had been misinterpreted and the millions that Musk referenced include individuals who, while not receiving benefits, have records lacking a recorded date of death.
What To Know
"For the past 7 weeks, @SocialSecurity has been executing a major cleanup of their records," DOGE posted on X, formerly Twitter. "Approximately 11 million numberholders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked deceased."
The number of records updated, according to DOGE, has risen from 3.2 million on March 18, to the nearly 11 million as of the update on April 24.
It includes some 2.7 million registered as being between 120 and 129 years old; 3.4 million aged from 130 to 139; and another 4.4 million recorded as being more than 140 years old. All of these have now been marked as deceased.
In a March 2015 review, the SSA revealed that death records had not been updated for 6.5 million individuals over the age of 112 who were presumed deceased.
However, the SSA clarified that these Social Security numbers are not receiving benefits, noting that the agency automatically suspends payments to anyone listed as 115 years old or older.
Musk first drew attention to the SSA records concerning deceased Social Security number holders in February, sharing a spreadsheet that displayed "the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!" The data is likely to be from Numident, a database that includes all Social Security numbers since they first were issued in 1936.
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The data Musk posted included more than 10 million people listed as being above the age of 100, including one who is recorded as being between 360 and 369 years of age.
"Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security," Musk added.
According to SSA statistics, of the 50 million people receiving Social Security retirement benefits in 2023, around 53,000—approximately 0.1 percent—were over the age of 100. The U.S. has roughly 100,000 centenarians, according to the Pew Research Center.
What People Are Saying
On March 5, the SSA released a statement saying: "The data referenced in the media pertain to individuals whose records lack a recorded date of death. While these individuals may not be receiving benefits, it is crucial for the agency to uphold accurate and complete records."
What's Next
DOGE said it has around 1.4 million records left to inspect, with expected completion in two weeks.
The expected completion date may roughly coincide with when Musk is expected to cut back on his role at DOGE.
"Starting early next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly," Musk told investors on a Tesla earnings call, according to a report by Yahoo Finance.
His involvement with the Trump administration has been credited with falling profits for his electric vehicle company, which reported a 20 percent drop in car sales for the first three months of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
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