The claims of widespread fraud don’t maintain water.
In a latest Oval Workplace briefing, Elon Musk supplied reporters an instance of fraud, waste and abuse that he presupposed to have discovered on the Social Safety Administration.
His search of the company’s database had turned up thousands and thousands of individuals ages 150 and older. His obvious reasoning is that these individuals are actually useless, and due to this fact a variety of fraud was occurring by paying advantages to useless folks.
So as to add weight to his story, Musk subsequently shared his numbers on X, the social-media platform he owns. Certainly, his minions discovered about 20 million people with ages over 100, all of whom presumably have been useless and receiving advantages.
The Social Safety database consists of all people who ever paid into the system or acquired advantages. It is smart to have an entire report of this system’s historic exercise. The Musk crew requested the machine to scan the database and establish all those that didn’t have a date of dying related to their report, and that question netted the numbers Musk shared.
Two points are vital right here. First, it’s not shocking that the Musk numbers exceed the U.S. inhabitants (see Determine 1). Certainly, greater than a decade in the past a 2015 audit report from the company’s Inspector Normal recognized the shortage of dying information as an issue that must be addressed. Nevertheless, given the manpower required to repair the historic report and Social Safety’s restricted funds, the company determined to give attention to enhancing the system for present and future staff slightly than finishing historic documentation. Therefore, whereas it could be good if every report had a date of dying, many don’t.
Second, simply because information of very outdated folks exist with out a dying date, that doesn’t imply that these useless individuals are receiving checks. Two items of proof help that rivalry. A very powerful is that the variety of checks going out for retirement and incapacity advantages are simply what one would count on. For instance, the inhabitants of these ages 65+ is 59 million, and the variety of checks going out to retired staff, their spouses and their widow/widowers is 56 million (see Determine 2). If checks have been additionally going out to 21 million outdated useless folks, the whole variety of funds would far exceed the inhabitants 65+.
On a extra micro degree, the 2015 Inspector Normal’s report famous that whereas the examiners had discovered thousands and thousands of individuals within the system who have been probably useless, they recognized solely 13 checks going to beneficiaries who have been probably 112+. In actual fact, a handful of individuals do stay to that age.
In fact, any group that pays out $1.4 trillion every year to retired and disabled people and their households will inevitably make errors. The Social Safety Advisory Board, a bunch of out of doors specialists, often points suggestions to enhance the accuracy of the system’s funds, equivalent to having the Treasury Division accumulate the information on deaths.
It’s vital, nevertheless, to remember the magnitude of Social Safety’s errors. In keeping with a July 2024 Inspector Normal’s report, between 2015 and 2022, the Social Safety Administration’s improper funds accounted for lower than 1 % of complete funds. Apparently that error charge is decrease than for any personal insurance coverage firm.
In abstract then, the Social Safety Administration is just not excellent – it makes some fee errors and doesn’t have the date of dying on a few of its outdated information. And due to the shortage of dying dates, I’m not stunned that the Musk crew discovered many information the place the beneficiaries ages could be 100+. However these information present no indication of waste, fraud, and abuse. In actual fact, the individuals who one would suppose must be receiving the checks are those getting the checks, and the Inspector Normal might discover solely 13 checks going to these over 112.
If Musk and his minions wish to make themselves helpful, perhaps they might fill within the lacking dates of dying on the Social Safety database.
