US recovers $31 million in Social Security payments to dead people
Source: AP
By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Updated 11:24 AM CST, January 15, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ever since the U.S. Social Security Administration opened its books to the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service, it has been able to stop and recover more than $31 million in improper Social Security payments to dead people.
“These results are just the tip of the iceberg,” the Treasury’s Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk said in a news release.
As part of the omnibus appropriations bill in 2021, Congress gave the Treasury temporary access to the SSA’s “Full Death Master File” for three years, effective December 2023 through 2026. The SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who have died and the file contains more than 142 million records, which go back to 1899, according to the Treasury.
The Treasury projects that it will recover more than $215 million during its three-year access period.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/social-security-biden-treasury-trump-doge-cc46365b82a32038123576502977dd26
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maxsolomon
(35,742 posts)"Full Death Master File", as opposed to Partial Death?
tinymontgomery
(2,731 posts)Just need to make sure those funds go back in the SSN account or however they break that money out.
SWBTATTReg
(24,747 posts)those taking care of the Estate knew about notifying SS of these deaths? Of course I'm being nice, perhaps this could be nefarious people depending upon the former person's SS payments, decided to not tell anyone to keep the gravy coming. I do hope that they recover these payments. $215 million to be recovered seems small to me, but I could be wrong. At least they're doing something about it, in recovering these funds paid out incorrectly.
not fooled
(6,154 posts)When my mother passed, within a week I notified the SSA that she had died and sent them a check for the last SS payment she received (via auto deposit) to cover the time period after her death. Nevertheless, soon (after the check had been cashed) the SSA seized the same amount from her bank account. They later returned it, with an apologetic note for doing so when I had already repaid the money.
My point is that they had no problem finding out that she had died, soon after her death (and presumably not from my notifying them, since they seized the money despite my having paid it already).
This story promotes the notion that SS is riddled with fraud and abuse. The amounts involved are relatively minor. 31 million? A drop in the bucket as the oligarchs prepare to loot the nation. Of course the government should recover money paid improperly. But here's a massively bigger issue for anyone who wants to see fraud stopped: https://apnews.com/article/irs-treasury-tax-wealth-ira-2932f286c89b19b9ccecaaca2f4f2c2b] Treasury recovers $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from high-wealth tax dodgers