Musk claims there are 150-year-olds receiving Social Security benefits

[rangerrebew]

Musk claims there are 150-year-olds receiving Social Security benefits
Story by Eric Revell • 16h

Elon Musk: It's not 'optional' but 'essential' to cut federal spending
Billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday claimed that a cursory review of Social Security records by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found evidence that the safety net program is paying benefits to 150-year-olds.

Musk, who has been tasked with leading DOGE as a special government employee, spoke to reporters on Tuesday from the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and said DOGE found payments going to beneficiaries listed as being around the age of 150, though he didn't go into detail about the claims.
 
"There's crazy things like, just a cursory examination of Social Security and we've got people in there that are about 150 years old," Musk said. "Now, do you know anyone that's 150? I don't. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records, they're missing out."

"So that's the case where, like, I think they're probably dead is my guess, or they should be very famous. One of the two," he added.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/musk-claims-there-are-150-year-olds-receiving-social-security-benefits/ar-AA1yVi9N?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=533fa3ccc5f14559907db19f69538d87&ei=104

[rangerrebew]

The problem for democrats is their political agenda is run by politicians, bureaucrats and idealists who are facing business people, realists, and economist republicans.  Democrats have no answers to offer that would keep them from looking like the incompetent people they are.

[Timber Rattler]

Just saw this explanation from an old COBOL programmer:

"I'm an old programmer. "Coder" in today's parlance. And many old programmers know COBOL. Young coders don't. When the Muskrat claims Social Security is paying thousands of 150 year olds I think someone should let him know that in COBOL, if a date is missing the program defaults to 1875. e.g. 2025 - 1875 = 150"

[Smokin Joe]

Just saw this explanation from an old COBOL programmer:

So how do you collect Social Security without a birth date on file?

Considering retirement benefits are determined by age (and birth year to collect full benefits).

That trips a flag, too.

[Hoodat]

The COBOL explanation is not that clear cut.   The 1875 date comes from ISO 8601-1.  It is in reference to "proleptic Gregorian calendar" - the default calendar when no calendar type is specified in the code.  So both the birth date and calendar types would have to be omitted to come up with the 1875 date.   Yet even with that, the age would come to 149, not 150.

This is a nice diversion, but does not confirm anything.  This standard date was removed in 2019.  Gregorian references go back to 1584.

In this document the "proleptic Gregorian" calendar as defined in ISO 8601-1 is the only standardised entry for the calendar identifier. If the calendar element is omitted, "proleptic Gregorian" is the assumed value. If the temporal origin element is omitted then "1875-05-20" is the assumed default value.

Note: The default value for TemporalOrigin of 1875-05-20 is the date of signing of the Convention du Mètre, an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations (Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, United States of America, and Venezuela). The treaty created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), an intergovernmental organization under the authority of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and under the supervision of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), which coordinates international metrology and the development of the metric system. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced in October 1582. Adoption of this calendar has occurred in various countries over a 400 year period.

https://docs.ogc.org/is/18-010r7/18-010r7.html#100

To know for sure, check the records of the 150-year-olds and see if they all have the same birthdate - 1875-05-20.  If so, that would explain Musk's claim.  But it would also open up a much bigger issue - why anyone is collecting Social Security with no birthdate in the system.

Currently, 30% of all Social Security payments go to people below retirement age.  There is plenty of room to cut.

[Timber Rattler]

Well the real issue here is that the government is still using COBOL in 50+ year old machines to handle Social Security, and is not cleaning out the deceased.  An dyes, those old  SS#s are undoubtedly being used and re-used for nefarious purposes.

[American Girl]

Excerpt:
In a revelation that has stunned the nation and fueled calls for reform, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has uncovered a jaw-dropping irregularity in the U.S. Social Security database, exposing what appears to be millions of “immortal” beneficiaries collecting benefits. Late Sunday night, Musk shared a post on X that has since gone viral, highlighting a table of ages from the Social Security Administration (SSA) database where the “death” field is marked FALSE, suggesting over 25 million Americans aged 100 and older are still receiving payments—including some listed as older than the U.S. Constitution itself.


This might be the biggest fraud in history.

Please note, babies are issued SSN  now.  There will be additional tens of millions when the additional age brackets are included

https://conservativeus.com/twilight-economy-doge-reveals-immortals-in-social-security-records-whos-really-collecting-screenshot/

[Bigun]

20 Million+ over the age of 100 on social security rolls and no one can figure out why it's going broke.

[Wingnut]

Well the real issue here is that the government is still using COBOL in 50+ year old machines to handle Social Security, and is not cleaning out the deceased.  An dyes, those old  SS#s are undoubtedly being used and re-used for nefarious purposes.

If they (the Gov) can store millions of paper files in a cave...I believe Elon on SS.

[rustynail]

Some are on 'the view'.

[Hoodat]

Well the real issue here is that the government is still using COBOL in 50+ year old machines to handle Social Security

And this is after spending untold tens of millions over the last 15 years for updating the system and converting everything to Java.

[Hoodat]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1891350795452654076

[bilo]

And this is after spending untold tens of millions over the last 15 years for updating the system and converting everything to Java.

Is it really possible that Social Security is paying benefits to 20 million plus people that aren't even alive?

If so we are looking at 500 Billion being paid out that shouldn't.

[Hoodat]

And let's not forget the $400 billion of social security money going out each year to those under age 60.

[DB]

And this is after spending untold tens of millions over the last 15 years for updating the system and converting everything to Java.

So is Java to make it as slow as possible so it takes lots of government employees to get anything done?