• The Trump administration claimed the Social Security Administration gives payments to dead people.
• An SSA audit published in November 2021 revealed $298 million paid to 24,000 dead Americans.
• That's fewer deceased recipients than the "tens of millions" of people the administration suspected.

The Trump administration is searching for fraud in the Social Security Administration for what it believes are payments to dead Americans, but SSA audits reveal this isn't happening as frequently as the administration said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview that President Donald Trump has instructed Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to find fraud within the SSA. She added that they suspect there are "tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments."

While SSA audits over the past few years have found that a few thousand dead Americans have received Social Security payments, it was nowhere near as widespread. Business Insider analyzed three recent audits by the Office of the Inspector General at the Social Security Administration conducted since 2021. These determined that errors such as overpaying beneficiaries and paying dead Americans have amounted to billions in losses, though these are under 1% of total SSA benefits payouts.

The Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment.

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SSA audits reveal small overpayments with recommendations to fix those

A November 2021 audit by the Office of the Inspector General at the Social Security Administration found that the agency paid about $298 million to 24,000 people after their deaths despite their accounts being flagged for suspended payments through December 2019, far below the tens of millions posited by Leavitt. The audit traced this error to faults in policy and technician errors.

The SSA sometimes sends beneficiaries either too large or too small sums, though these improper payments are a small fraction of total payments.

A July 2024 report from the OIG determined that between fiscal year 2015 and 2022, only about 0.84% of the Social Security Administration's payouts were deemed improper. However, over that period, SSA distributed a whopping nearly $8.6 trillion in benefits, meaning even that small percentage of improper payments added up to $71.8 billion.

"Even the slightest error in the overall payment process can result in billions of dollars in improper payments," the audit said, noting that improper payments occur due to infrequently updated SSA records or beneficiaries' failure to report information.

Those improper payments are often clawed back after SSA identifies them. The audit said that at the end of fiscal year 2023, the SSA recovered over $4.9 billion in overpayments, though its uncollected overpayment balance sat at $23 billion.

The OIG has provided various recommendations for amending some improper payment issues, such as creating reports to identify cases of people who have died and establishing automation and data analytics procedures to better identify improper payments.

In a separate July 2023 audit, about 18.9 million people born in 1920 or before held Social Security numbers but no death records in SSA files, a concern Musk raised in a post on X. But the overwhelming majority of those aren't receiving benefits: The audit said that 44,000 of these people received SSA payments at the time of the review. The Census Bureau estimates there are over 100,000 centenarians in the US as of 2024.

After Musk said during a press conference in the Oval Office on February 11 that he and his team found "people in there that are 150 years old," PolitiFact reported that some people who have closely worked with the SSA suspected the reason for that anomaly in the records was that, in some coding systems, the absence of a birthdate is coded to 1875, the year a conference for determining international standards occurred.

On Monday, Michelle King, the SSA's acting commissioner who worked at the agency for over 30 years, stepped down after DOGE inquired about accessing sensitive SSA information containing Americans' personal details. King was replaced by Leland Dudek, who manages the SSA's anti-fraud office.

"President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks," Harrison Fields, principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement.

• The Department of Government Efficiency aiming to make sweeping changes to the federal workforce.
• Several top government officials have left their roles after pushing back against DOGE.
• The task force's work to reshape Washington is causing major disruptions.

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was envisioned by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk as a way to streamline government operations and reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy.

As the hard-charging task force has made its imprint on the government, several high-profile officials have either stepped down from their roles or have been dismissed from their positions.

Here's a look at some of the major departures that have come as a result of DOGE's work.

Michelle King, Social Security Administration head

King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, stepped down from her post at the agency on Sunday following a dispute with the Department of Government Efficiency, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

After serving more than 30 years at the SSA — which manages programs related to retirement, survivors, and disability benefits for millions of Americans — King became its acting commissioner last month, according to her LinkedIn.

Nancy Altman, the president of political advocacy group Social Security Works, told NBC News that several SSA officials informed her of King's departure. Altman told the outlet that King had refused to provide sensitive data including bank information, Social Security numbers, and medical records to the DOGE team.

In a statement shared with Business Insider, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said that the agency will be led by "a career Social Security anti-fraud expert" until Trump's pick to lead the SSA, Frank Bisignano, is confirmed.

"President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long," Fields said in the statement.

The SSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, nor did King.

Jim Jones, head of the FDA's food division

Jones, the head of the US Food and Drug Administration's food division quit his role on Monday, according to a resignation letter obtained by Bloomberg.

Jones said in the letter that he was leaving his post because the cuts DOGE has made to the FDA will make it too difficult to do his job. Combined with the Trump administration's "disdain for the very people" needed to implement the changes it wants to see, Jones wrote that it would be "fruitless" for him to continue in his role.

In an interview with Stat News, Jones cited his frustration that nine staffers were terminated from a 29-person group that was researching chemical additives in food — a key area of concern for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"It goes to this indiscriminate nature of it," Jones told the outlet. "There's nothing strategic about it, nothing thoughtful about it. That'll be the hardest place to shore up. And just listening to Secretary Kennedy, that's one of his highest priorities, if not his highest priority."

When asked to confirm Jones' departure, the White House shared a statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying "there are a number of bureaucrats who are resistant to the democratic process and mandate delivered by the American people."

"President Trump is only interested in the best and most qualified people who are also willing to implement his America First agenda on behalf of the American people," Leavitt continued in the statement. "It's not for everyone and that's okay."

The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

David Lebryk, top US Treasury official

Lebryk for years was the top civil servant at the Treasury Department and he briefly served as acting Treasury secretary. In those roles, he oversaw over a billion payments made by the government annually before he announced his retirement in late January.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave approval for DOGE to access the system, which had generally been operated by career civil service employees.

Lebryk was put on administrative leave after pushing back against DOGE's attempts to access the expansive federal payment system, according to The Washington Post.

Lebryk joined the Treasury Department in 1989 as a presidential management intern and served as the fiscal assistant treasury secretary from 2014 until January 2025. From the start of Trump's second term until Bessent was confirmed as Treasury secretary days later, Lebryk served as the acting Treasury secretary.

Business Insider reached out to the Treasury Department and a spokesperson for DOGE for comment.

Paul Martin, USAID inspector general

Martin, the inspector general at the US Agency for International Development, was fired in February after his office issued a report describing what they saw as the downfalls of the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency.

The dismissal of Martin — who had served as USAID's inspector general since 2023 — came in the form of an email from the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, per NBC News.

"On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Inspector General of the United States Agency for International Development is terminated, effective immediately," deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse wrote in the email. "Thank you for your service."

Business Insider has reached out to the USAID Inspector General's office for comment.

Steven Reilly, lead engineer for Notify.gov

Reilly, who served as the engineering lead for the General Services Administration's Notify.gov text messaging platform, stepped down from his role in the Technology Transformation Services branch after its new leader tried to obtain access to all parts of Notify.gov, according to The Washington Post.

The new director of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services, Thomas Shedd, is a former Tesla engineer.

Shedd tried to obtain administrative access to over 20 government systems, and in a departing letter, Reilly said he had not "received a justification" for Shedd's request, according to The Post.

"While we have suggested alternatives, such as read-only access, Thomas has continued to request full admin/root access," Reilly said in the letter.

GSA acting press secretary Will Powell told Business Insider in a statement that Shedd "has not been given access to the Notify.gov system at this time."

"Access ensures a detailed understanding of how the systems work so areas for optimization and efficiencies can be quickly identified," Powell said. "Mr. Shedd is working with all appropriate GSA officials to ensure all established GSA protocols and policies are followed before he is granted access to a TTS system."