Elon Musk: Social Security recipients should get more money after DOGE’s work

Elon Musk and members of the Department of Government Efficiency shared their plans to put more money in the hands of "legitimate recipients of Social Security" on Thursday during an exclusive interview with "Special Report with Bret Baier."

The Social Security program faces a looming bankruptcy date if it is not addressed by Congress. A May 2024 trustees’ report stated that Social Security’s trust funds will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035. Then, Social Security would only be able to pay 83% of benefits, absent changes.

Overall cost-cutting measures planned by DOGE would reduce wasteful spending by 15% across many critical government programs, Musk claimed, and that includes Social Security.

FILE - A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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As of March 27, DOGE claims on its site it has saved Americans $130 billion, or $807.45 per taxpayer.

Protection from fraud

Aram Moghaddassi, a software engineer with DOGE, said improvements to SSA will include protecting recipients from fraud.

What they're saying:

"One of the first things we learned is that they get phone calls every day from people trying to change direct deposit information. So when you want to change your bank account, you can call Social Security. We learned 40% of the phone calls that they get are from fraudsters."

"They steal people’s Social Security, is what happens," Musk claimed.

"The oldest American is 114. So it's safe to say if their age is 115 or above. They're fake. Or they should be in the Guinness Book of World Records, and we should not be giving out loans to babies. So the youngest recipient of a Small Business Administration loan is a nine-month-year-old, which is a very, very precocious baby we're talking about here. So obviously it was just fraudulent. And they do terrible things. They will see that a kid has been born, they will steal that kid's social security number and then take out a loan and leave that kid with a bad credit rating. There is literally a baby. The terrible things are being done, is what we're saying and how we're stopping these terrible things," Musk added. 

Elon Musk and key DOGE players took questions on FOX News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier.

Recipients will receive more money

Cuts to the SSA in recent months have prompted questions about how the benefits of millions on Social Security will be affected. 

Dig deeper:

Musk claimed on Thursday that the changes DOGE will implement to the program will put more money in the hands of "legitimate recipients of Social Security." 

What they're saying:

"What we're doing will help their benefits. What Aram was saying is that the fraud prevention measures we're putting in place will ensure that somebody can't take your Social Security, and redirect it to their bank account, which is happening all the time because of the massive fraud loopholes in Social Security. So, legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less," Musk said.

Failing computer systems

Musk emphasized the importance of "fixing the computers" that are running some of SSA’s operations.

"When I say that our job is tech support, I really mean it," Musk said.

"We have to fix the computers. If the computers can't talk to each other, you can't get research done. If the computers can't stay online, people won't receive their Social Security. So what we have here are a bunch of failing computer systems that are preventing people from receiving their benefits, that are preventing research from happening, that are extremely vulnerable to fraud, and we're fixing it," Musk continued.