The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on Elon Musk’s statements during his interview on FOX News last night:

“Using comments that tracked those of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Elon Musk repeated the Trump administration’s lies about Social Security. He made the absurd claim that 40 percent of the over 78 million Americans who call Social Security’s 1-800 number every year are ‘fraudsters.’ Like Lutnick, he said that those ‘who scream the loudest’ are ‘the fraudsters.’

The truth is that Social Security has a fraud rate of 0.00625 percent, far lower than private sector retirement programs. It is Musk and DOGE who are inviting in fraudsters. Scammers are already rushing in to take advantage of the confusion created by DOGE’s service cuts.

No one who thinks Social Security is a criminal Ponzi scheme should be anywhere near our earned Social Security benefits or the sensitive data we provide the Social Security Administration.“

This post was originally published on Common Dreams.