Tesla CEO Elon Musk has voiced strong support for the change in Small Business Administration's (SBA) policy, which is aimed at preventing frauds involving stolen Social Security numbers. In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Elon Musk wrote, “No more loans to babies or people too old to be alive (i.e. stolen Social Security numbers).” Elon Musk made the comment in response to a post from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)'s account.
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 years or those above 120 years, 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 the age of 115 years during the year 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, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced that DOGE had initiated a significant cleanup of the Social Security Administration's records. He then quoted DOGE’s X 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 warned that this could result in errors in benefit distribution. US President Donald Trump also alleged that millions of individuals over the age of 100 remained in the database, with some still receiving payments.