From a press release:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an audit report, Beneficiaries Incorrectly Recorded as Deceased (032311). The audit examined whether SSA employees complied with Agency policies when correcting the records of living beneficiaries who were incorrectly recorded as deceased. …
The OIG reviewed a random sample of beneficiaries whom SSA recorded as deceased between January 2020 and December 2024 and later removed the death records from the Numident (and thereby removing such records from the DMF). Auditors found that, when SSA technicians corrected 45 percent of the incorrect death records, they did not document why the deaths were recorded in the first place, or why they were subsequently removed, as required by Agency policy. …
8 comments:
Is there a block to check for “big balls caused it”?
Absolutely would like to see how many Americans were hurt by the Doge babies doing this… and also how long it took to correct each instance
Somewhat useful, but OIG appears to be tip-toeing around the deliberate mis-classifications that started in April 2025. They only looked at misclassifications through December 2024. It found non-compliance with policy in 45% of the sample,
Yes, OIG cherry picked the years. The DOGE effect started in early 2025. But still declaring someone dead the problem is very much alive is bad. What is worse is the time it takes the customer correct the problem. SSA provides very little assistance to correct the problem.
A lot of times we don't know why they were declared dead, because HQ made the deliberate policy change (a couple of commissioners ago) to remove FO access to death input information. We used to make the CSR that screwed up correct it (because erroneous deaths are a massive pain in the ass as a workload), but now we have no idea who did the input. And since they disbanded the fantastic dedicated team at our RO that oversaw this workload, nobody really has their eyes on the ball at any level anymore.
The audit identified " 24,219 beneficiaries who had at least 1 incorrect death record from January 2020 through December 2024" so an average just under 5000 per year. The report's background section says 12,504 people were incorrectly listed as dead in 2025. So 2025 was a little worse than average on the normal errors, plus about 6300 living immigrants were added to the DMF while Dudek was in charge.
So the technician assigned to correct the problem has no access to determine how the problem happened in the first place but they are charged with finding out anyway in order to resolve any additional problems. And yet, they get it wrong about half the time. Amazing. With a. system like this, it is hard to see how they can ever get it right.
It would be wicked for the SSA to have a department of the undead or a resurrection cadre. Think of the Halloween costumes. Way cooler than the space force.
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