(Nexstar) – As an obvious example of government waste, Trump portrayed laughter in a Congress speech on Tuesday.
“5 million people from 140 to 149,” Trump claimed that “money is being paid to many of them.”
Perhaps even more shocking was Trump's claim that “one is listed at age 360”, but is it true that actual taxpayer dollars are wasted on incredibly old recipients?
After all, the database may list those people, but that doesn't mean they're making paid benefits.
“The data reported in the media represent people who do not have a date of death associated with the record.” SSA wrote. “These people may not receive benefits, but it's important for agents to maintain accurate and complete records.”
Part of the confusion comes from a Social Security software system based on the COBOL programming language, which does not use any specific formats for dates. This means that entries with missing or incomplete birth dates default to 150 or more years old reference points. The news organization first reported on the use of COBOL programming languages at the Social Security Agency.
Furthermore, a series of Report SSA inspectors in March 2023 and July 2024 stated that they had not established a new system to properly annotate death information in a database that includes social security numbers of around 18.9 million people who were born before 1920 but not marked as dead. However, this does not mean that these people were receiving benefits.
The agency has decided not to update the database due to the cost. As of September 2015, agents have automatically stopped paying for people over the age of 115.
The SSA cross-checks data with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to see if recipients under the age of 115 and incomplete death reports have not used Medicare Part A or B for more than three years.
The SSA says people over the age of 90 are currently in wage status and who live in the US will prioritize and see if they qualify for Social Security benefits. The agency says it will reach out to those individuals to see if they are still alive, and if they are not, it will stop paying and “report alleged fraud to the SSA inspector's office.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
