Toddlers, people not yet born, and those 115+ snagged nearly $400M in unemployment insurance: DOGE

The Department of Government Efficiency appears to have discovered more potential fraud within the federal government.

On Wednesday, the DOGE shared a post on social media highlighting troubling findings from an unemployment insurance survey.

'We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud – accountability is here.'

Since 2020, tens of thousands of individuals who were either over 115 years old, children, or not yet born have cashed in on millions of taxpayer-funded benefits.

The DOGE reported that 24,500 people over 115 years old collected $59 million in benefits, 28,000 between 1 and 5 years old received $254 million, and 9,700 "with birth dates over 15 years in the future claimed $69M in benefits."

One individual claiming the birth year 2154 collected $41,000, the DOGE stated.

Elon Musk responded to the post, writing, "Your tax dollars were going to pay fraudulent unemployment claims for fake people born in the future! This is so crazy that I had to read it several times before it sank in."

He added in a separate post, "The oldest living American is 114 years old, so it is safe to say that anyone 115 or older is collecting 'unemployment' due to being dead. There was no sanity check for impossibly young or impossibly old people for unemployment insurance."

The Labor Department confirmed that unemployment insurance was distributed to fraudulent recipients, Fox Business reported.

DOL Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told the news outlet, "This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments."

"The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans' stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud – accountability is here," she added.

During Thursday's Cabinet meeting at the White House, Musk told Trump about the newly discovered fraud and anticipated savings due to the DOGE's work.

"Thanks to your fantastic leadership, this amazing Cabinet, and the very talented DOGE team, I'm excited to announce that we anticipate savings in FY2026 from reduction of waste and fraud by $150 billion," Musk stated.

"And some of it is just absurd, like people getting unemployment insurance who haven't been born yet," he continued. "That's just crazy."

Musk stated that the federal government is a "target-rich environment" for uncovering waste and fraud.

According to the DOGE's website, the most significant chunk of the federal government's overall savings has come from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Labor.

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