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By Aliss Higham
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More than $200 million in cuts at the Social Security Administration (SSA) are being targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Why It Matters
DOGE, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk on the appointment of President Donald Trump, has promised to pursue trillions of dollars in cuts across many programs and departments of the federal government, with a specific focus on uncovering fraud and wasteful spending, including in Social Security.
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What To Know
According to the DOGE website "wall of receipts," which is described as a "transparent account of DOGE's findings and actions," the unofficial government department has so far saved just over $232 million with regards to the SSA alone.
The largest saving, which DOGE has down as some $231 million, comes from what is described on the Federal Procurement Data System as "IT and telecom, IT management support services."
A spokesperson for the SSA told Newsweek: "The task order referenced on the DOGE receipt website includes numerous IT development efforts, one of which was Social Security's former Gender X Marker project." Gender X refers to when a gender identity is unspecified, or different from male or female, and is marked so on U.S. passports and birth certificates.
"We can confirm that the Gender X Marker project was canceled in January 2025, resulting in an estimated $560,000 cost avoidance," the spokesperson continued. "While the overarching task order was not terminated, we continue to assess and identify other projects under this task order that may be canceled or streamlined to create further cost savings."
Newsweek has contacted DOGE for clarification on the savings number quoted.
An additional $109,224 has purportedly been saved on a "contractor that convened and moderated "focus groups to help identify structural barriers to women's financial advancement, design solutions to overcoming these barriers, and to better address labor market disparities." Nearly $34,000 has been saved on "sustainability consulting services."
The data from DOGE also reveals that the SSA was paying for four Politico PRO Plus annual licenses, to the tune of $14,000. However, the saving taken from this has been marked as $0 at present.
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Musk and Social Security
Musk has recently made unproven claims that millions of long-dead people are receiving Social Security benefits. He posted a chart on X, formerly Twitter, which inexplicably alleged that 400 million people, with millions well over the age of 100, were receiving Social Security benefits. The SSA's website shows that in 2024, there were only 68.5 million recipients.
A 2023 audit of Social Security found that 18.9 million people in the Social Security database were listed as being 100 years or older. In contrast, Census Bureau data reported only 86,000 people in the U.S. were living past the age of 100.
However, most of those in the Social Security database were no longer receiving monthly payments. Of the 18.4 million, most had not earned benefits in 50 years and were likely considered deceased. Only 44,000 were still receiving checks, with just 13 of them aged 112 or older.
What People Are Saying
Elon Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on February 17: "I love the people. We just want to fix the waste and fraud that is bankrupting the country. The scrutiny on me is extreme, so it's not like I could 'get away' with something, nor do I have any incentive to do so."
Martin O'Malley, the former commissioner of the SSA under President Joe Biden, said: "These 19-year-old nitwits from DOGE that are violating the law and plucking people's … personal identifying information, they don't know what they're looking at."
Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO 0f 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek on the topic of Musk's claims regarding payments to deceased claimants: "Are there people collecting social security over 100 years of age, the answer is incontrovertibly yes. But not at all to the extent Musk implies. This is what happens when people wade into topics they don't fully understand. He's confusing the fact that thousands of Social Security numbers exist for people over 100 with them actually collecting benefits. Two very different things."
What's Next
Further updates are expected to be added to DOGE's "wall of receipts" as it continues to work through the spending of the SSA and other government agencies.
Update 2/20/25, 4:37 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a comment from a Social Security Administration spokesperson.
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