Washington, DC:
US President Donald Trump delivered his first speech to Congress in his second term on Tuesday night (local time), elaborating on his massive budget cuts, crackdown on illegal migration and economic vision for America’s future. However, during his address, the American President was found bending some facts on issues, especially on the payment of social security to millions of senior citizens above the age of hundred.
Trump alleged his Social Security Administration (SSA) records show “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on.”
“Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people who are rather elderly but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149…1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old,” he said.
The President claimed a lot of money is paid out to many of these people, which is hurting “Social Security”, and “our country”. and his administration is probing the matter.
He further alleged that several hundred people older than 220 were also still getting checks, according to SSA data – and that “one person is listed at 360 of age.”
Fact Check
The alleged fraud mentioned by President Trump– and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk earlier– reportedly doesn’t exist. The numbers Trump and his billionaire advisor referred to are products of a known problem with the government’s data, according to a report by NBC.
The report said that while there are millions of people over the age of 100 registered in the Social Security Administration’s database, the vast majority of them don’t receive benefits. The issue has been repeatedly identified by the Social Security Administration, but officials have argued that updating old records is costly and unnecessary.
Social Security’s new acting commissioner, Lee Dudek, also recently acknowledged the issue and said, “The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”
According to a 2023 Social Security inspector general report, 18.9 million people listed as 100 years or older – but not dead – were in the database. However, only 44,000 of them were getting payments.
In another report released in July 2024, SSA’s inspector general found that from 2015 to 2022, only 0.84 per cent of benefits payments were improper. The report also said most of these improper payments were overpayments – not payments to dead people or people who didn’t qualify.
Moreover, the agency data showed, just 89,106 people – not tens of millions – over age 99 received retirement benefits in December last year.