Elon Musk has issued a major social security warning over ‘widespread fraud taking place’.
The billionaire has found himself at the center of President Trump’s administration after taking on the role of head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
While it is not technically a governmental department, the president revealed that it will act as an outside advisor for federal spending, with Musk saying that he will slash federal spending by trillions of dollars.
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Controversy was sparked last week when DOGE was granted full access to the Treasury payment system, with fears growing that Musk may be able to access confidential information including social security numbers and Medicare benefits payments.
Now, Musk has claimed that widespread fraud is happening in the payment of ‘federal entitlements’, which includes things like social security.
Taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Musk said: “At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR. It’s not even close.”
In a previous tweet, Musk claimed that $100 billion a year was being paid to people with no social security number or ‘even a temporary ID number’.
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The Tesla boss went on to say: “When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!! This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.”
In another post, Musk wrote: “the social security database is not de-duplicated, meaning you can have the same SSN [social security number] many times over, which further enables MASSIVE FRAUD!!”
Speaking to Newsweek, Max Richtman, who is the president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said: “Social security beneficiaries and their families have every reason to be alarmed by Elon Musk’s takeover of the US Department of Treasury’s payment system, which is responsible for paying Social Security benefits.
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“Seniors, their families, and people with disabilities most certainly cannot trust Trump and Musk with their crucial federal benefits - or their personal data. We hope that the courts will halt this effort to hijack the Treasury Department’s payment system for blatantly political purposes.”
For now, Musk has been blocked from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans by an injunction put in place by New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer.
It’s a move that Musk called ‘absolutely insane’.
The next court hearing will take place this Friday (February 14).