Personal Finance

Amid DOGE cuts, Elon Musk turns focus to Social Security beneficiaries over 100

Published

1 month ago

February 19, 2025

FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk speaks as his son X ? A-12 and U.S. President Donald Trump listen in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 11, 2025.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

As Elon Musk continues to look for ways to cut federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, he has raised questions as to just how long some Social Security beneficiaries have been receiving payments.

With a “cursory examination” of Social Security, “we’ve got people in there that are 150 years old now,” Musk said during a Feb. 11 CNN interview.

In recent days, he re-upped those claims on social media platform X. “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk posted on Feb. 16.

Just because the Social Security Administration has millions of people in its database who are very elderly and not marked as deceased does not necessarily mean benefits are fraudulently being paid, said Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, a public policy research organization.

“The amount of fraud is likely miniscule,” Nowrasteh said.

Top Social Security official exits after refusing DOGE access to sensitive data

When asked for comment, the White House provided an email statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt citing a 2024 investigation that found the Social Security Administration made about $71.8 billion in improper payments out of almost $8.6 trillion in benefits paid from fiscal years 2015 to 2022.

Notably, deceased beneficiaries were one of multiple reasons that may prompt improper payments, according to the report from the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General.

“The Social Security Administration is now working to find even more waste, fraud and abuse in the Administration’s whole-of-government effort to protect American taxpayers,” Leavitt said in the emailed statement.

This week, acting Social Security commissioner Michelle King stepped down over reported concerns over DOGE access to sensitive data at the agency. In a new statement released Wednesday, Lee Dudek, who is now acting commissioner, said the agency plans to prioritize transparency and protect benefits and information.

“The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record,” Dudek said. “These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”

The Social Security Administration did not respond to requests for further comment.

Data doesn’t influence benefit payments, expert says

In recent days, Musk has shared data on the numbers of Social Security beneficiaries by age on X. Experts say the data likely came from the Social Security Administration’s electronic file of personally identifiable information on everyone with a Social Security number, known formally as Numident.

Numident is an electronic file that has personally identifiable information — such as name, date of birth and other details — for every individual who has been issued a Social Security number, according to a 2023 Social Security Office of the Inspector General report focused on Social Security number holders ages 100 and up.

The Social Security Administration inputs death information it receives from various sources on Numident, according to the report. From there, the agency uses Numident to create a full file of death information, the Death Master File, that is shared with other agencies that pay benefits to help prevent and detect fraud.

In the 2023 report, the Office of the Inspector General found about 18.9 million Social Security number holders were born in 1920 or earlier and had no death information on their Numident records. However, Census Bureau data estimates at the time of the review showed only about 86,000 individuals living in the U.S. were age 100 or older.

If a death is not properly recorded, that can interfere with efforts to prevent and identify fraud by both federal and private entities, the OIG report said.

Just because Numident records are out of date doesn’t influence the Social Security Administration’s payments, according to a former Social Security Administration employee.

“The payment records that send 70 million checks payments a month aren’t driven by the Numident,” the former Social Security Administration employee said. “To correlate the two is just manipulative.”

For decades, the agency had reached out to beneficiaries who are over 100 years old, who have not recently used Medicare, to verify their identities, the former Social Security employee said.

“To say, ‘Oh, well, there’s 150-year-old people,’ that’s just silly,” the former Social Security Administration employee said. “That particular operation over the years did yield cases where there was fraud being committed, but not a lot of it.”

Undocumented immigrants pay into program

Individuals over age 100 are more susceptible to having their Social Security numbers fraudulently used by undocumented immigrants for work rather than having their benefits stolen, Nowrasteh said.

“A good number of these Social Security numbers are being used by illegal immigrants to work and pay taxes,” Nowrasteh said.

Importantly, that likely means more money coming into Social Security through payroll taxes than leaving the program through benefit payments, according to Nowrasteh.

In tax years 2016 to 2020, employers and individuals received about $8.5 billion in wages, tips and self-employment income from 139,211 Social Security numbers attributed to individuals ages 100 and up, according to the 2023 SSA OIG report that looked at number holders ages 100 and up.

“Probably zero of them are working,” Nowrasteh said of the data. Instead, that revenue into the program is likely coming from undocumented workers who won’t receive benefits, he said.

“Because they’re illegal immigrants, they don’t have access to the benefits on the back end when they retire,” Nowrasteh said.

Immigrants consumed 21% less welfare and entitlement benefits than native born Americans per capita, or per person, as of 2022, according to new research Nowrasteh co-authored.

If the administration cracks down on payroll taxes coming into Social Security using false numbers, “then it might actually worsen the fiscal soundness of the program and make it insolvent sooner,” Nowrasteh said.

The Social Security Administration relies on ongoing payroll taxes to pay benefits. To supplement those payments, the agency also draws from money set aside in trust funds. Because those trust funds are running low, just 83% of both retirement and disability benefits may be payable starting in 2035, Social Security’s trustees projected last year.

It remains to be seen whether Congress will act sooner to prevent those changes.

Personal Finance

Disability advocates sue Social Security and DOGE to stop service cuts

Published

17 hours ago

April 3, 2025

Business Finance News

A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025.

Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images

A group of disability advocates filed a federal lawsuit against the Social Security Administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday aimed at stopping cuts to the agency’s services.

Recent changes at the Social Security Administration under DOGE — including staff reductions, the elimination of certain offices and new requirements to seek in-person services — have made it more difficult for individuals with disabilities and older adults to access benefits, the lawsuit argues.

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The plaintiffs include the National Federation of the Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Deaf Equality, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and individual beneficiaries.

“The defendants’ actions are an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on Social Security benefits, concealed beneath the hollow pretense of bureaucratic ‘reform,'” the complaint states.

In nine weeks, the new administration has “upended” the agency with “sweeping and destabilizing policy changes,” the plaintiffs claim, that have shifted agency functions to local offices while slashing telephone services.

“The result is a systematic dismantling of SSA’s core functions, leaving millions of beneficiaries without the essential benefits they are legally entitled to,” the lawsuit complaint states.

The “mass restructuring” of the agency is unlawful and violates the Rehabilitation Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit argues. The changes also violate multiple constitutional provisions, including the First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, according to the plaintiffs.

With 1.1 million disability claims pending, the recent actions could also be life threatening to individuals who are dying or going bankrupt while waiting for decisions, they allege.

The Social Security Administration did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

“President Trump has made it clear he is committed to making the federal government more efficient,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in an email statement. “He has the authority to manage agency restructuring and workforce reductions, and the administration’s actions are fully compliant with the law.”

Lawsuit alleges reform is ‘administrative vandalism’

People hold signs during a protest against cuts made by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to the Social Security Administration, in White Plains, New York, U.S., March 22, 2025.

Nathan Layne | Reuters

The Social Security Administration sends monthly checks to around 73 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries.

DOGE, which is not an official government entity, has been tasked with cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” within the federal government. President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating DOGE on Jan. 20, the same day he was inaugurated.

Since then, the Social Security Administration has cut 7,000 employee positions and closed the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation. The Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity handled the agency’s equal employment opportunity and civil rights programs. The Office of Transformation was responsible for coordinating customer service-related initiatives like adding the ability to use digital signatures and electronic documents.

The Social Security Administration has also changed its identity proofing policies for claiming benefits and changing direct deposit information that is expected to require more individuals to visit the agency’s offices in person.

The agency has updated its policy, allowing individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income who cannot use a personal my Social Security account to complete their claim entirely over the telephone, starting April 14.

The reforms amount to the dismantling of “core functions of SSA, abandoning millions of Americans to poverty and indignity,” according to the plaintiffs’ complaint.

“What the defendants frame as ‘reform’ is, in truth, administrative vandalism,” the lawsuit states.

Beneficiaries face long waits, overpayment issues

The plaintiffs include seven individuals whose experiences, including long customer service waits and, in some cases, demands to repay large sums to the Social Security Administration, are detailed in the complaint.

One plaintiff, Treva Olivero, who has been legally blind since birth, was informed in March 2024 that she had been overpaid Social Security disability insurance benefits for five or six years, prompting the agency to demand she repay more than $100,000, according to the complaint.

Olivero’s Medicaid coverage was also terminated soon after, which left her without income and health coverage. She has since been in an “ongoing struggle” to have her disability benefits reinstated, while also facing almost $80,000 in medical debt, according to the complaint.

Fiserv CEO on the nomination to Social Security Commisioner role

Another plaintiff, Merry Schoch, who received Social Security disability insurance for many years, returned to work to help pay for large medical bills after she was hit by a waste management truck in 2022. She reported her income to the Social Security Administration, and the agency made no changes to her benefit payments, according to the complaint.

Two years later, Schoch stopped working and reported her unemployment to the Social Security Administration. In August 2024, the agency then terminated her benefits and informed Schoch that she owed $30,000 for the disability benefit payments she received while working full time, according to the complaint.

Last September, Schoch was informed she could reapply for benefits. However, she has since struggled to get in touch with the agency over the phone, online and in person.

Both Olivero and Schoch are members of the National Federation of the Blind, which is also a plaintiff.

The plaintiffs want the court to reverse the Social Security Administration’s recent reforms, including staff reductions, closures of certain offices and policies requiring in-person appointments.

Personal Finance

Amid trade turmoil, ‘you do not want to time the market’

Published

21 hours ago

April 3, 2025

Business Finance News

Pres. Trump unveils sweeping tariffs: Here's what to know

As President Donald Trump rolls out sweeping new tariffs on goods imported into the United States, Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about their financial fate.

Consumers worry that the duties will cause inflation to flare up again, while investors fear that higher prices will mean lower profits and more pain for the battered stock market.

As of Thursday morning, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 1,200 points, or 2.8%. S&P 500 futures sank 3.4%, and Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4%.

But sharp drops — or sudden spikes — in the market are to be expected, according to Jean Chatzky, CEO of HerMoney.com and host of the podcast HerMoney with Jean Chatzky.

“With these volatile markets, you do not want to time the market,” she said of the old adage. “Timing the market doesn’t work — it’s time in the market.”

Trade tensions, inflation and concerns about a possible recession have undermined consumer confidence across the board, several studies show.

Still, it’s normal for most Americans to feel unnerved during heightened volatility, Chatzky said.

“There’s very little doubt that consumers are feeling nervous, maybe more nervous than we’ve felt in quite some time,” she said.

Committing to setting money aside in a high-yield savings account, whether by scaling back on dining out or rideshare expenses, will help regain some financial control, Chatzky said.

Top-yielding online savings accounts currently pay 4.4%, on average, well beyond the savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks, which average just 0.41%.

“Taking action is the best way to feel more resilient,” she said.

It’s understandable why some may be hesitant to continue investing, however, when you are investing for the long term, a down market is an opportunity for dollar-cost averaging, which helps smooth out price fluctuations in the market, Chatzky said.

This is also a good time to check your investments to make sure you are still allocated properly and rebalance as needed, so you are not taking on more risk that you are comfortable with, she added.

Timing the market is a losing bet

Talk yourself down from making any sudden financial moves, Chatzky advised.

Trying to time the market is almost always a bad idea, other financial experts also say. That’s because it’s impossible to know when good and bad days will happen.

For example, the 10 best trading days by percentage gain for the S&P 500 over the past three decades all occurred during recessions, often in close proximity to the worst days, according to a Wells Fargo analysis published last year.

And, although stocks go up and down, the S&P 500 index has an average annualized return of around 10% over the past few decades.

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Personal Finance

How to file for a free tax extension if you can’t make April 15 deadline

Published

23 hours ago

April 3, 2025

Business Finance News

Galina Zhigalova | Moment | Getty Images

If you can’t file your taxes by the April 15 deadline, there’s a free, easy way to submit a federal tax extension online, experts say.

Nearly 1 in 3 American admit that they procrastinate when it comes filing their taxes, according to a January survey of more than 1,000 U.S. filers from IPX1031, an investment property exchange service. In addition, about 25% do not feel prepared to file their taxes, the survey found.

As of March 21, the IRS received roughly 80 million individual returns of the 140 million expected this filing season, the agency’s latest reporting shows.

Many natural disaster victims have an automatic tax extension, which varies by jurisdiction. Military members serving in a combat zone also have more time to file.

However, the federal tax deadline for the majority of taxpayers is April 15. It’s possible to push that due date to Oct. 15 by filing for an extension.

But “it’s an extension to file, not an extension to pay,” said Jo Anna Fellon, managing director at financial services firm CBIZ.

“It’s an extension to file, not an extension to pay.”

After the tax deadline, you will start incurring the failure-to-pay penalty of 0.5% of your unpaid taxes for each month or partial month that your taxes remain unpaid. The failure-to-pay penalty has a maximum charge of 25% of your unpaid taxes.

That’s cheaper than the failure-to-file penalty, which applies when you don’t submit your return by the deadline. The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of unpaid taxes monthly, also limited to 25%.

But you’ll also owe interest on your unpaid balance, which is currently 7% and accrues daily after April 15.

You can estimate your taxes owed by creating a “pro forma return” — or mock version of your filing — using as many tax forms as possible, Fellon said.

The ‘easiest way’ to file an extension

There are a few free options to file a tax extension.

For federal taxes, you can complete Form 4868 and mail it to the IRS. But it’s better to file digitally to avoid processing delays amid the agency’s shrinking workforce, experts say. Paper filing can also increase fraud risk, they say.

The “easiest way” is by choosing “extension” when making a payment for 2024, which automatically submits Form 4868, according to Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida.

“It takes all of five minutes,” and you can double-check the transaction via your IRS online account, he said.

IRS Direct Pay

Internal Revenue Service

Alternatively, you can file your extension for free online via IRS Free File, a public-private partnership between the IRS and several tax software companies.

For the 2025 season, you can use IRS Free File for returns if your adjusted gross income, or AGI, was $84,000 or less in 2024. But there’s no income limit to file an extension, Lucas said.