Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk endorsed new loan verification measures implemented by the Small Business Administration, highlighting concerns about fraudulent applications using stolen Social Security numbers.
What Happened: “No more loans to babies or people too old to be alive,” Musk wrote Monday on X, responding to an announcement from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he leads under President Donald Trump‘s administration.
The SBA now requires date of birth verification for all direct loan applications and has paused processing for applicants under 18 or over 120 years old, what DOGE called “basic sanity checks” to minimize fraud.
The measures follow revelations that during 2020-2021, the SBA issued 3,095 loans totaling $333 million to borrowers supposedly over 115 years old who remained listed as alive in Social Security databases. In one case, a purported 157-year-old received $36,000 in loans.
This initiative connects to broader concerns Musk raised in February about Social Security Administration (SSA) data accuracy. He shared statistics showing millions of Americans over 100 years old still listed as alive in the system, jokingly suggesting, “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”
Why It Matters: University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers previously provided context, citing a July 2023 SSA Inspector General audit that identified approximately 18.9 million number holders born before 1920 without death information.
The audit revealed 98% of these cases receive no payments, with the anomaly largely attributed to pre-electronic record-keeping era deaths.
Critics like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) have voiced concerns about the potential undermining of Social Security, claiming Republicans are “setting up Social Security for failure” by reducing access points for assistance.
The SBA’s new verification procedures represent early efforts by the Trump administration’s efficiency initiative to address data integrity issues affecting federal loan programs while balancing operational priorities with resource constraints.
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