Tesla CEO Elon Musk has voiced support for the Small Business Administration‘s (SBA) new policy aimed at preventing fraud involving stolen Social Security numbers. In a post on X, Musk commented, “No more loans to babies or people too old to be alive (i.e. stolen Social Security numbers),” in response to a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announcement.
The revised SBA policy now requires applicants to provide their date of birth for all direct loan applications to combat fraudulent claims. It also temporarily halts loan processing for individuals under 18 or over 120 years old, following past cases flagged by DOGE, including a 157-year-old receiving a $36,000 loan. The measures follow reports of $333 million in loans issued to individuals over 115 years old during 2020-2021.
SBA’s updated verification process is part of the Trump administration’s broader initiative to improve data integrity in federal loan programs while managing operational priorities and resource limitations.
He has previously called it the “biggest fraud in history”. He then said that “there are far more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the US. This might be the biggest fraud in history”.
Earlier this month, the Tesla CEO said that DOGE has cleaned up the dead people database. He then quoted DOGE’s post announcing “Approximately 3.2 million numberholders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked as deceased. More work still to be done”.
In February, Musk had raised concerns about Social Security records, claiming that millions of deceased individuals were still listed as alive. He suggested this could lead to errors in benefit distribution. US President Donald Trump had also made similar claims, stating that millions of people over 100 years old remained in the database, with some still receiving payments.
