Fact vs. Fiction: Are Tens of Millions of Dead People Over 100 Years Old Collecting Social Security?

Claim:

Elon Musk and Donald Trump claim that “millions and millions” of people over 100 years old—including some supposedly 200 or even 300 years old—are improperly receiving Social Security benefits.

Reasoning:

Publicly available data disproves this claim. The Social Security Administration (SSA) reported that as of December 2024, only about 90,000 retirees aged 99 or older were receiving benefits, far fewer than the millions suggested. The number of centenarians in the U.S. is roughly 101,000, making the idea of “millions” of fraudulent payments implausible.

The misunderstanding stems from an outdated Social Security database (Numident), which lists nearly 19 million Social Security numbers for individuals 100 or older who lack a recorded date of death. However, a government audit found that “almost none” of these individuals were actually receiving Social Security payments.

Fraud is not the main issue. While improper payments occur, SSA’s inspector general reported that most overpayments were due to administrative errors, not fraud. From 2015 to 2022, the SSA issued $71.8 billion in improper payments—less than 1% of total benefits—primarily to living recipients. The SSA has safeguards in place to prevent fraud, such as automatically stopping payments to anyone over 115 years old and ongoing efforts to improve record accuracy.

Fact or Fiction?

🔴 Fiction – There is no evidence that “millions” of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments. The claim exaggerates an existing data issue and misrepresents Social Security fraud.