DOGE sees dead people, and they're getting Social Security. Are fraud claims real?

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A 2024 audit of the Social Security program found $72 billion in improper payments to Americans between 2015 and 2022.

That sounds like a lot of money, until you consider that Social Security paid out $8.6 trillion in benefits in those years. And some “improper” payments were underpayments. Also, most overpayments were recovered.

In a March speech before a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump spoke of “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” in Social Security. Earlier, White House adviser Elon Musk had told podcaster Joe Rogan that Social Security was “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

The president and his efficiency chief are turning the federal benefits program upside down, looking for waste and fraud.

Will they find any?

The answer from policy experts: Not much.

“There’s vanishingly little fraud,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and expanding Social Security.

Waste and fraud in Social Security? Not so much.

The idea of collecting Social Security for a dead relative has traction in popular culture.

But to actually do it? “You would have to keep it hidden that the person had died, and not just from the Social Security Administration, from the whole world,” Altman said. “It would be like ‘Psycho.’”

As for waste, Altman said, “Social Security is extremely efficiently run. About half a cent of every dollar has been spent on administration.”

Trump, Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are targeting Social Security amid a broader campaign to shrink government. Musk has stated a goal of cutting $1 trillion from the federal budget.

It’s easy to understand the Trump administration’s focus on Social Security: the program accounts for roughly one-fifth of all government spending.

But Social Security benefits are enshrined in law: Neither Trump nor Musk has the power to cut them, experts say, without an act of Congress.

“What they’ve discovered is, they can’t mess with the benefits,” said Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. “So, they’re messing with the administration.”

Trump and DOGE are looking for savings where they can: slashing the Social Security workforce and rooting out waste and fraud.

Seasoned observers don’t think they’ll find much of either.

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Social Security payments already get close scrutiny

Social Security is one of the most closely scrutinized organizations in America. The program gets regular audits from its own Office of the Inspector General, a department charged with identifying waste and fraud.

Ironically, shortly after his inauguration, Trump fired the head of that office, along with more than a dozen other inspectors general across federal government.

“You’d think if they were really concerned about fraud, they wouldn’t get rid of those people,” Altman said.

Internal audits have found little waste or fraud in Social Security.

The $72 billion in “improper” payments reported in 2024 represent less than 1% of all benefit payments between 2015 and 2022. Some improper payments were underpayments, and most overpayments were recovered.

A more recent audit found that most overpayments were inadvertent or unavoidable. About 3% represented proven fraud.

In a March press conference, acting Social Security Commissioner Lee Dudek said his agency loses $100 million a year to direct deposit fraud. That figure represents about 0.00625% of all Social Security payments, according to Axios.

The Trump administration has struggled to find other evidence of waste or fraud in the massive agency.

Are dead people getting Social Security?

In February, Musk alleged on X that millions of dead Americans were collecting Social Security, based on a misreading of federal records.

Trump’s own Social Security chief eventually refuted the claim. But Trump repeated it in his speech to Congress, quipping that people too old to be alive were receiving “a lot of money” from Social Security.

Despite the lack of evidence of significant fraud or waste in Social Security, the Trump administration has invoked those fears to justify abrupt rule changes that have thrown the agency into chaos, according to the AARP and other onlookers.

In March, the agency announced it would require Americans to visit Social Security offices in person to prove their identity if they cannot do so online, removing the telephone as an option.

Behind the scenes, the agency is slashing its workforce. The goal is to cut Social Security staff to 50,000 from the current 57,000, which is already reduced from a historic high of more than 67,000.

“If anything, they were understaffed, not overstaffed,” Kamarck said.

The cuts have reportedly sown chaos: A cascade of website crashes, unanswered phones and long waits, prompting rebukes from retirement advocates.

“AARP is hearing from thousands of older Americans confused and concerned about their Social Security payments, the status of Social Security field offices, and inexcusably long wait times on the phone to get their questions answered,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president, in a February statement.

Social Security is the third rail of American politics

Social Security advocates say Trump and Musk, the tech billionaire, are learning a lesson absorbed by many politicians and policy wonks before them. Social Security has long been termed the “third rail” of American politics: It is untouchable.

“When you’re changing a program that effects so many millions of Americans, it’s not like a tech company, where you can break it and put it back together,” said Andrew Stettner, director of economy and jobs at The Century Foundation.

AARP pushed back hard on the announcement that Social Security patrons could no longer conduct crucial business by phone. The agency subsequently walked it back.

“Requiring rural Americans to go into an office can mean having to take a day off of work and drive for hours merely to fill out paperwork,” LeaMond said.

AARP notes that the latest inspector general report to Congress on Social Security made no mention of telephone fraud, the presumed reason for the rule change.

In another ironic turn, Social Security watchers say scammers are taking advantage of the abrupt policy shift, and exploiting the attendant confusion, to create new fraud.

Scam artists are telephoning Americans, claiming to be from Social Security “and telling people that their benefits are going to be canceled if they don’t prove their identity,” Altman said. Then, the scammers attempt to steal personal information from the victim.

Social Security is clawing back overpayments

In late March, Social Security announced another rule change: The agency would withhold all future benefit payments to Americans who have received overpayments until the money is repaid. The action reversed a 2024 reform that reduced penalties for Social Security recipients who were overpaid.

Social Security advocates say that move, too, is based on the false premise that fraudsters are profiting from Social Security.

Most overpayments are not fraudulent, and collection efforts can become “a potentially devastating ordeal” for low-income Americans, according to a 2023 report from KFF Health News.

“Many people in Social Security, they’re depending on those benefits to survive,” Stettner said. “Having draconian repayment measures, it goes against equity and good conscience.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump and Musk see waste and fraud in Social Security. Is it there?