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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AnnaS
A lot of relatives who have been cashing Grandparents’ social security checks are not in a hurry to report a death.
Justina
Did you see that funeral homes report the death to SSA? Unless you’re talking about a Bates Motel situation, the relatives still collecting seems pretty unlikely.
HermanBill18
Seems like CYA stuff to me!
Sam F.
A chart of some type of proof of how many of these records have been updated / corrected would be helpful. IE. we have corrected X number of records resulting in save X dollars so far.
Mary F.
I doubt Trump wanted to know the steps you take to keep the SS records up to date. It was a great Selling Point for his Speech the other night and he almost looked gleeful while advising his audience of the matter.
Anyone who wanted to correct the issue would have notified you asap. and made certain you had the manpower to do so. Just more politics.
Jackie
I guess you did not understand what they were saying about the people over 100. They said exactly what you did that they may not of been still receiving benefits they had to look further into it. But I bet some were. What I like to know is WHY were you sending money to other countries?
Isaksson C.
I worked and paid for years into my SSA account relying on that there is nothing more secure than a Government operated retirement. I causes great concern that a corporate raider, neither a government employee nor publicly elected, is moving with a heavy hand and been given broad authority without much supervision or any auditing of Inspector Generals who have been fired. Laying government bare to become subject for eventual criminal action! I question the ethics of these actions and individuals? Making me very weary and concerned of relying on my SSA retirement I worked for my entire working life?
Alexis
Why not have those recieving SS submit (electronically) some identifying information once a year as proof of life….. Possibly a medical record (or similar) and have it due by the end of their birth month. A record for anytime in the last year. If it is not received, send a letter that they have 60 days and then suspend benefits until they you receive it. That way you would only be sending, at the most, 14 months of payments to a deceased person.
John s.
Why don’t you delete everyone over 100 and find out who has been receiving this fraudulent money and prosecute them.
Justina
You do know some people live to 100 plus?
Gene H.
I agree with Nancy L. Your blog post does not ease my suspicions that SSA does not have control of our money.
Robert H.
Thank you for the update, it shows me as a taxpayer that you are taking steps to eliminate the fraud that unfortunately permiates much of our government programs