The Social Security Administration maintains a Death Master File (DMF) available to the public which lists the names, Social Security numbers, date of birth and last address on those Americans whose deaths have been reported to the Social Security Administration.
A new report from Social Security's Inspector General contains the disturbing news that there are 20,000 living Americans who are listed on the DMF! That sort of error could have serious consequences and the possibility of identity fraud may be the least of the problems. All sorts of public benefits, including Social Security are cut off once one's name and Social Security number show up on the DMF. It might become impossible to do a wide range of business activities, including getting credit. Of course, the burden of correcting this mistake would be upon the innocent victim.
A new report from Social Security's Inspector General contains the disturbing news that there are 20,000 living Americans who are listed on the DMF! That sort of error could have serious consequences and the possibility of identity fraud may be the least of the problems. All sorts of public benefits, including Social Security are cut off once one's name and Social Security number show up on the DMF. It might become impossible to do a wide range of business activities, including getting credit. Of course, the burden of correcting this mistake would be upon the innocent victim.
5 comments:
Well maybe that is why the SSA will not accept the listing of a person on the master file as proof that the person is deceased. I'm working with a woman right now whose child support case with the state had been terminated because the state obtained information from the death master file that the father was deceased. However, SSA will not award any type of survivor benefits without my client providing a death certificate - which we cannot find because we don't know how the death was reported to the SSA in the first place. It's a true catch-22. SSA apparently cannot verify a death unless someone has presented proof of death.
If anyone out there has any better info about the process than what I've described here, please respond.
SSA probably will not accept a name being on the DMF as proof of death, since anyone can report some as dead. Just call the 800# aand answer the right questions and that person is dead.
Name any process anywhere (how about checking the error rate at law office of the blog owner for a start) that has a better error rate of a quarter of one percent. Seriously, how realistic is it to expect any human driven process, with thousands of reporters, to be 100% perfect all the time?
The IG lives in a fantasy world if they expect perfection, which shows how these kinds of reports just are milked by IGs to support their existence. Since perfection will never happen, they have jobs in perpetuity.
The death master file is public; for a few bucks this lady can find out what is on the DMF, place of death specifically and then request a death certificate from the proper authority. The death master file is a repository of reported death, not proof of death. She needs proof, she needs a death certificate.
http://www.ssdmf.com/Library/InfoManage/Guide.asp?FolderID=104&SessionID={DB572D86-1754-4A06-89C3-855ADB1495D9}&RLMsg=&SP=
Or try rootsweb, if the death was a while ago. It's free.
She can find information on obtaining a death certificate at:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm
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