The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has issued a report recommending that the Social Security Administration ought to get out of the business of maintaining the Death Master File that is used to prevent improper payments of not just Social Security benefits but many other types of government benefits. It is also widely used by private financial institutions. The SSAB thinks the Department of the Treasury should get the job. There’s just one problem with this idea. I’m pretty sure that Treasury wants nothing to do with maintaining the Death Master File and would strongly resist any legislation foisting the job on them.
Finally a report on the DMF that is clear, concise, easy to understand and gets it right (in so far as to the who, what, why, when and where of the DMF). The recommendations may not fly but the essential facts are laid out nicely. I didn't see mention of the money spent by SSA on protecting the PII of those whose deaths were reported and corrected (and thence were put on the public file before changes were made a few years back on restricting the disclosure of the DMF via NTIS) but I suppose it's an interesting but not on point point for purposes of the report. The proposed solution may not fly politically but it is a solid proposal. It's a shame this couldn't have been produced by SSA staff (who have been proposing solutions to this internally for years) and not the SSAB, but again, likely a better approach politically to get traction outside the agency.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants it because it is brutally hard to keep up to date and there will always be errors and places like this with no understanding of dealing with massive amounts of data will whine about it.
ReplyDeleteSeems like an easy fix. Just get rid of the 3rd party verification. Only rely on death certificates to verify deaths. If the SSA over payers, then oh well. That is their fault and the cost of an insurance company (which really is all the SSA is) handing out benefits.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the old Mark Twain quote - "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."