The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has confirmed that the Social Security Administration recently eliminated 12.3 million records of people who were noted as being at least 120 years old.
Questions about discrepancies and the unexpected ages of some names in the Social Security database have drawn broad attention in recent months.
To keep the public informed, DOGE began regularly sharing progress updates in March about Social Security’s sweeping data review. In a March 18 announcement, the agency stated that 3.2 million holders of social security numbers previously listed as 120 or older had now been designated as deceased. DOGE also cautioned that the process was not yet finished.
More than a month afterward, in an update shared April 24, DOGE announced that the count of those age 120 and older marked as deceased had grown to 11 million.
The latest information, issued last week, showed that 12.3 million individuals over 120 have now been confirmed as deceased, officially closing those records.
“Some complex cases remain, such as individuals with 2+ different birth dates on file. These will be investigated in a follow-up effort,”
DOGE explained.
This development parallels other warnings raised by DOGE figurehead Elon Musk, who in March drew significant attention by claiming 2.1 million people who are not citizens were granted social security numbers in 2024.
