That tweet isn't evidence of anything and anyone could make that snippet on Google sheets. A lie goes around the world before the truth puts on its shoes.
If there were tens of millions of dead people getting SS checks, then our current budget would be damn near double than it already is. This is easy to check.
This claim is of the very same nature of the 2020 voter fraud claims. Was there some fraud? Yes there was. Was it mass fraud? No it wasn't and it wasn't even close.
The same will be the case here.
Breakdown of the situation:
So are tens of millions of people over 100 years old receiving benefits?
No.
Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system called COBOL, which has a lack of date type in its programming. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization WIRED first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration.
Additionally, a series of
reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these individuals were receiving benefits.
The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million.
A
July 2023 Social Security OIG report states that “almost none of the numberholders discussed in the report currently receive SSA payments.” And, as of September 2015, the agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old.
https://apnews.com/article/social-s...-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7
abcnews.go.com
