SBA Authorized $333 Million in Federal Loans for Elderly People Over 110, Including a 157-Year-Old, the DOGE Reports

Fraud was investigated after the SBA granted $333 million in loans for 110+-year-olds, including a 157-year-old.

According to a post on Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E. official X account on Sunday, the SBA authorized 3,095 loans, worth $333 million, for borrowers who were 115 years of age or older in the Social Security database between 2020 and 2021.

Officially 157 years old, one of them was given $36,000. The documents were described as a component of a large-scale federal scam by the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E).

During the same time frame, the SBA provided $312 million in 5,593 loans to companies run by children under the age of eleven. There was a commonality among the 5,593 cases: each loan application used a Social Security number (SSN) that did not match the name on file, even though some lawful business arrangements could make this permissible.

A Biden-era policy that lowered clawbacks to 10% of their monthly checks is being reversed by the Social Security Administration (SSA), which is restoring full benefit cuts for seniors who were previously overpaid. Over the next ten years, the agency hopes to recover $7 billion.

SSA’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, stated, “We have the great responsibility to be good stewards of the trust funds for the American people.” “We must update the overpayment repayment policy to return to full withholding.”

To keep seniors from losing all of their money at once, the SSA restricted overpayment recovery under Biden’s administration to 10% of an individual’s Social Security check. Beneficiaries who received extra payments—often as a result of SSA errors—may have their monthly benefits lowered to zero under the new policy, which takes effect on March 27.

Reducing SSA employees raises the possibility of these mistakes and makes correction more difficult, according to former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley. “More innocent seniors who rely solely on their monthly Social Security benefit to survive will suffer from severe financial hardship as a result of this return to the 100% interruption and clawback of a beneficiary’s monthly payments,” he stated.

Overpayments totaling $4.9 billion were recovered by the SSA last year, and an additional $10.3 billion is due. If the beneficiary was not at fault and collecting would be “against equity and good conscience,” the commissioner may waive payments; nevertheless, in 2023, only $302 million in waivers were granted. The 10% recovery rate for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which helps people with disabilities, will remain in place, but full clawbacks will be returned to all other beneficiaries.