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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Elizabeth J.
What about the people still receiving payments over age 110?
Joella J.
A bit late – but better late than never. Waiting to see how much and if anyone is liable for cashing these checks
TR
Sounds to me like your “long established program” doesn’t work. And they “may not”, not “are not” receiving benefits, doesn’t really give me a nice warm fuzzy feeling. Nice try at the spin.
Doug H.
This article stops short by not stating whether the checks were mailed and were they cashed.
SUZANNE V.
What took you so long to address this issue??? It was common knowledge about these records not being dead people illegally paid benefits! You let Trump tout these numbers in his address last night as BLOAT he had addressed. STOP THE LIES TO THE PUBLIC!
Jackie K.
The numbers given by the president were so ridiculous that it was obviously one more untruth amony many. Thank you for pointing out the procedures SS uses. (If this is too political, you can omit all but the last sentence.)
Vernon L.
I think this is great.
Karen P.
Thank you very much for this update, very helpful.
I am wondering if it would be possible to make a legal requirement and procedure for any medical professionals and Human Resource type professionals to notify both Social Security and Medicare when a client or patient of theirs passes? That seems to me to be a fairly simple way to help keep the important Social Security records clearer and more relevant. (If that is already the case, I guess it just needs to be enforced.)
rt
So they spoke the truth. Aged personnel on the books and someone collecting benefits???
ALAN D.
This covers SSI’s but still does answer whether or not these fictitious people were getting payments or not.