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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Glenn
How much of what you explain is what you were told to say by musk who is not a government employee versus the truth?
Justina
And look out: he was quoted today saying DOGE was expected to make mistakes.
As the head of ssa, I hope he will explain what ‘mistakes’ we can look forward to.
Allison M.
So what happens when or if a person who’s alive is declared dead? I would hope they would look for a death certificate before cutting off a 100 year old who’s relying on those benefits. I see too much room for error!
My mom is 94. Should she be worried?
Tricia L.
Once you receive a death certificate, which I hope all mortuary’s mail you, is there a way you can notify the Registrar of Voters list so as to keep voter fraud at a minimum?
I imagine much of this fraud with hundreds of centurions still listed as living with the SSA and the Registrar of Voters is relatives not notifying you when their family member passes? If nefarious intentions are to keep getting a family members SS check…then a return of all of the stollen money plus interest seems like a great solution to me!
Joseph K.
Using a practice of waiting 3 years of no usage is incredibly unprofessional in it’s nature. All communities are required to post death certificates on all those deceased. Why not require them to post that data to an online database so you can verify more rapidly. Or have one of the thousands of probationary workers you’ve had contact the states ME’s and go get the info. Or you could just flag an age i.e. 100 years old and Call the People. I know there may be a lot now but as the rolls are expunged the work goes down. There are many ways to get this info if you’re willing to do the work.
Scott G.
This only speaks to centurions who do not have a date of death. It says they “may not be receiving benefits”. That is great that the SSA is trying to correct their DB but what about the ones who are erroneously receiving benefits?
What is being done about those? The president mentioned people in age groups beyond reasonableness and simply flagging those who have not used Medicare/Medicaid for 3 years doesn’t begin to answer the mail on that. This doesn’t make me feel that much better unfortunately. Much more could be done here.
Nancy S.
People die every day at every age. There are many counties in the United States where multi generational families cohabitate. Not everyone goes to or can go to the doctor or hospital, have unusual family traditions for healing and home burials even. There will always be those who slip through the system. For the most part the system works. The President is just throwing spaghetti at the wall as a distraction while he devises ways to take the health & wealth from those who he deems as inferior. The 99%.
He is sick in the head and lacks a soul.
Dale
Please audit / correct and purge ( if necessary ) your records . There is always someone who will abuse our benefit systems if given the chance. Routine/ ongoing audit procedures should have been avoiding this problem all along.
Ralph F.
How can one do a factual audit when the Data Base is inaccurate? How revealing are they going to be when they overturn a huge amount of irregularities. Payments mysteriously funneled overseas to a man known as Chauncy?
Shirley W.
My sister is 93 and going strong. I hope no one takes her SS away because that is all she has!
Mark W.
Thank you for your efforts.