There is a report that Social Security has sent about 10,000 $250 economic stimulus checks to people it knew had died. The agency's excuse is that it did not have enough time to clean up its databases. Allegedly, one check was sent to a woman who had died in 1967.
Ten thousand mistakes sounds like a lot, but in context, it is far less than one mistake per thousand checks sent out. I doubt that this is anything to get excited about.
Social Security has given a contract to Oracle for computer work on a recovery system for these payments. The notice posted in FedBizOpps.Com estimates that there will be 15,000 to 20,000 incorrect payments.
Ten thousand mistakes sounds like a lot, but in context, it is far less than one mistake per thousand checks sent out. I doubt that this is anything to get excited about.
Social Security has given a contract to Oracle for computer work on a recovery system for these payments. The notice posted in FedBizOpps.Com estimates that there will be 15,000 to 20,000 incorrect payments.
6,000 beneficiaries die every day. Between the time SSA gave the payment list to Treasury, and the day the payments were disbursed can take 2 weeks. Also, the legislation said Prouty beneficiaries (people who were 72 or older in 1969) were eligible, and about 8,000 of them were never declared dead by their families/nursing homes/estates, in fact most died before the states and SSA automated their death notice process. So SSA doesn't know they're dead. That's what happened in the case you referred to.
ReplyDeleteDead people getting the check/payment isn't a problem. Dead people CASHING the check would be.
Wow, it's old home week! I thought I was the only one who remembered Prouty benefits. A whole bunch of new Prouty benes showed up in CA during the 90's when families brought aged relatives into this country after the breakup of the USSR. Some may still be alive. But, really, of maybe 40 million checks, 10K are wrong and what's that error rate? I can't do the math but short of hand-delivering the checks, I really don't know how to avoid this in a mass mailing.
ReplyDeletePeople die every day. This is a fact and cannot be avoided.
ReplyDeleteHey, who needs to be stimulated more than dead people?
ReplyDelete