Social Security Addressing Aged Records
Reading Time: 1 MinuteLast Updated: March 5, 2025
The Social Security Administration (SSA) today shared its significant progress in identifying and correcting beneficiary records of people 100 years old or older. The data reported in the media represent people who do not have a date of death associated with their record. While these people may not be receiving benefits, it is important for the agency to maintain accurate and complete records.
“I thank President Trump for highlighting these inconsistencies during his speech last night to a joint session of Congress,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We are steadfast in our commitment to root out fraud, waste, and abuse in our programs, and actively correcting the inconsistencies with missing dates of death.”
The agency follows long established program integrity initiatives that identify people who have a higher likelihood of being deceased due to their age or incomplete death reports. For example, SSA receives data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of individuals who have not used Medicare Part A or Part B for three or more years. SSA uses the data as an indicator to select and prioritize cases of individuals age 90 or older, who are currently in pay status and living in the United States, to determine continued eligibility for Social Security benefits. The agency attempts to conduct an interview with these individuals to verify they are still alive. If the agency identifies someone is deceased, it immediately stops payment and reports any suspicions of fraud to SSA’s Office of the Inspector General.
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Doogie H.
This is complete bullshit.
Henry M.
trump said there are people 120–300 years old receiving SSA checks?? Is that true ????
Cynthia N.
Seriously? When did he start speaking truth? Look at some fact-checking reports.
Justina
Yes, he’s made wild claims. No, the claims aren’t true. This has actually been debunked several times.
Steve W.
Yet he keeps making the claims he surely knows by now to be false. But his base doesn’t know that they’re false since they only get their news from Fox News and the like.
S.Ellis
People are having money taken from their SScks, because of overpayment, when employees are using estimates income on the earnings that is incorrect. But y’all giving policemen,firefighters etc.money that never put money into SS.( not trying to stop them from getting money, but why take from people that worked and paid in SS). It’s the employees fault for using ESTIMATES INCOME THAT IS CORRECT.Please STOP TAKING MONEY FROM PEOPLE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY EMPLOYEES MISTAKES AND RETRO PAY ALL THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN.WHEN YOU ASK THEM ABOUT THE ISSUE EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT ANSWER🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️So not fair
Wax
Must be nice to spend freely without the worry. Someone else’s money
Linda
I absolutely do not want Elion Musk in the Gov. if he breaks inn get him for trespassing.
Tran
I support 700 Million to the veterans .and our troops . .
Fred K.
I’ll feel a lot better when the IRS can give us an ACCURATE amount being paid to the accounts of those who are dead, or are otherwise receiving payments to which they are not. I can easily understand how these kinds of errors can accumulate over the years, and as long as the IRS continues to work to fix them, I’m OK with that. But paying those who shouldn’t be paid: that’s different. I think the IRS needs to go after fraud, big time.
Linda S.
Come on!! You expect me to believe this sh$t?! I sat on hold with SSA for 3.75 hrs and was then disconnected because offices closed! And you think I’m going to believe you conduct personal interviews to establish date of death?! Ha! You wanna buy some beach front property in Phoenix??? I’m selling!🤣🤣🤣
Angela A.
When a person dies in the United States, the funeral home sends for the death certificate, which flags agencies like SSA. That’s when the benefits stop to the beneficiary (cause their dead). Unless it’s a Norman Bates situation, nobody is going to continue to collect anymore. Granted, there was a few mistakes in which 1% was continued being paid, something to the tune of like 72.1 billion dollars (which is still A LOT). Sadly there’s a lot of half truths and whole lies being spoonfed to the American people and it’s frustrating! I want to be able to have SOME trust in my govt and it’s elected officials, but then again, that’s never happened before and likely never ever will be the case.
Greg
Please don’t post just a broad statement along those lines. It’s important to talk about the Centenarian Project, and the Medicare Non-Utilization project in more detail so members of the public are confident that there is not widespread fraud. Explain that a member of management or a public affairs specialist personally visits those over 90 years of age that are not regularly using Medicare but receiving benefits to verify their identity and the fact that they are alive. The Agency must actively do it’s part to protect it’s reputation and safeguard it’s ability to continue to provide essential services to the American public.
Steve W.
You could have provided the same information without the blatant suck-up to Trump. His speech last night made it sound like this issue was evidence of massive fraud, which it is not.
Fred K.
Truth is, we honestly don’t know how much fraud (if any) is going on here. The IRS needs to comb the records, to get us some answers. I hope they can do this quickly, and report to the public.
Andwella S.
How ya gonna do this while also cutting your work force in half.