Elon Musk has once again stirred the hornet’s nest by claiming that the US Social Security database contains “millions” of individuals over the age of 120, many of whom he suggests are likely deceased. Musk first made these claims during an Oval Office press conference last week, where he said, “A cursory examination of Social Security, and we got people in there that are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone that’s 150? I don’t know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records… So that’s a case where I think that they’re probably dead.”
However, computer programmers were quick to challenge Musk’s assertions pointing out that the 150-year-old entries were not necessarily evidence of fraud, but rather a known quirk of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) antiquated system, which was largely written in COBOL – a programming language developed over 60 years ago and still in use across various US government agencies.
Due to COBOL’s lack of a date type, some implementations rely on a reference point for coding dates, often defaulting to the year 1875 when a birth date is missing or incomplete. Consequently, individuals appearing as 150 years old in 2025 could simply be a result of these default values rather than active Social Security recipients defrauding the system.
Musk doubled down on his assertion on Monday, posting a screenshot on X that he claimed depicted figures from “the Social Security database.” According to Musk, the data showed over 10 million individuals aged 120 or older with their “death field set to FALSE”, sarcastically adding that, “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”
Further scrutiny reveals that the database Musk is referencing listed nearly 400 million people – over five times the number of individuals currently receiving benefits in 2025 – according to SSA’s own website. This figure also significantly surpasses the total US population.
Despite the stir Musk’s comments created, his claims are not breaking as the SSA’s own Office of the Inspector General has previously flagged the presence of questionable age records in the system. A 2023 audit found 18.9 million people listed as 100 years or older – pending death records – present in the database. Similarly, a 2015 audit noted 6.5 million individuals over 112 years old with Social Security number but no recorded date of death. Notably, however, neither audit found evidence that these individuals were actively receiving Social Security benefits.
In reality, most of these entries come from a database known as “Numident” (Numerical Identification System), which has recorded every Social Security number issued since the program was created in 1936. This means that many of these records belong to individuals who were issued Social Security numbers of ago but never had their deaths properly recorded in the system. The Census Bureau, siting 2024 data, reported that only 86,00 centenarians were living in the US at the time- far from the “millions” that Musk has suggested.
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Manbilas Singh is a talented writer and journalist who focuses on the finer details in every story and values integrity above everything. A self-proclaimed sleuth, he strives to expose the fine print behind seemingly mundane activities and aims to uncover the truth that is hidden from the general public. In his time away from work, he is a music aficionado and a nerd who revels in video & board games, books and Formula 1.
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