In a bizarre twist of bureaucratic irony, thousands of living Americans have been mistakenly declared dead by the Social Security Administration (SSA), all under the watch of Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
According to federal employee Rennie Glasgow, a claims technical analyst with 15 years of experience at the SSA’s Schenectady, New York office, this sweeping mishap stems from DOGE’s aggressive push to root out what Musk called “phantom beneficiaries.”
The errors began shortly after Musk, who is leading President Donald Trump’s campaign to slash federal spending, claimed that millions of Americans over 100 years old—many of whom he assumed were deceased—might still be drawing Social Security benefits. However, the SSA has clarified that the numbers Musk cited were misinterpreted. The millions of flagged records included individuals who aren’t receiving benefits, and simply lack a recorded date of death.
Nevertheless, the cleanup campaign led to DOGE staffers erroneously moving the records of living individuals to the SSA’s Death Master File, a government database used to track deceased Social Security number holders.
“We have people who did not receive benefits come in every day with their ID and say, ‘I’m not dead, I’m alive!’” Glasgow told The Daily Beast. Obviously, this is of great concern for Americans who rely on Social Security. Read more about this Social Security benefits error here.
Hopefully, this issue gets sorted out soon, and nobody loses access to vital benefits in their retirement years. Understanding that Sol Security is vital, we are working with our partners in Congress to pass important legislation. See what we are doing here.
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