SSA paying dead people: Is the Social Security Administration really paying ghosts? SSA under fire for $186 million in payments to deceased individuals
ALSO READ: How to watch Kevin Costner’s ‘The First Christmas’ Special for free? Here’s everything you need to know
Ernst, known for his opposition to wasteful government spending, issued a clear warning in a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano. “Catch me if you can The time of Social Security fraudsters must end,” he wrote on Tuesday. “I implore you to continue doing everything within your executive powers to stop sending checks to dead people.”
Why is the Social Security Institution being re-audited?
The SSA has long faced criticism for mistakenly providing benefits to dying people; Some relatives cash checks for years before being caught. A watchdog review found more than $186 million in payouts to dead people over a multi-year period. What frustrates lawmakers is not just that the payments are being sent, but that they often go undetected for years.
Ernst argued that the agency should place more emphasis on prevention rather than reacting when fraud is discovered. He cited examples where authorities eventually discovered dead people were still receiving checks, many of which were received by family members who had kept their deaths secret.
ALSO READ: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi left the UK and returned to the US, saying country life was too boring
Which fraud cases highlight the depth of the problem?
Cases related to this problem span decades and show how easily fraud can continue when control is broken. One example of this was Canadian citizen Ellis Kingsep, who allegedly cashed more than $420,000 in checks for his mother between 1995 and 2023, when she was 103 years old. Investigators later found books on how to make fake IDs and photocopies of his mother’s signature, according to a report by The New York Post.
Another case involved Donald Felix Zampach, a California man accused of concealing his mother’s death for more than three decades and stealing more than $800,000. More recently, Josephine Guinauli Aquino of San Diego pleaded guilty to concealing her father-in-law’s 2019 death and collecting more than $175,000. He forged at least 150 bank checks along the way, according to a report by The New York Post.
ALSO READ: Mysterious 3I/ATLAS spacecraft from US to Australia pushes countries into urgent space threat exercises
The most recent case involved Afshin Setoodeh, whose mother left the country in 2019 and died in 2022. Setoodeh never reported her departure and continued to receive payments, ultimately pocketing approximately $55,000.
A 2023 investigation by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General revealed the extent of the problem: At least $186 million in payments went to “creditors who did not use the funds for beneficiaries’ needs.” The review found 14,877 allegations of abuse over several years, and a report by The New York Post found that “the SSA failed to investigate 12,050 allegations properly or in a timely manner.”
What reforms are lawmakers making to stop improper payments?
The problem has become so persistent that it has even become the focus of Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk. Musk claimed his team had uncovered evidence that “tens of millions” of dead people were still marked as alive in the SSA system. While that estimate may seem exaggerated, a 2024 watchdog report found that roughly $71.8 billion of the nearly $8.6 trillion in payments were still “improper.”
ALSO READ: What does 67 mean, who made the 67 meme and why is it so popular?
In a Christmas-themed statement, Ernst warned that taxpayers were actually “paying for real ghosts.” “We all know the Christmas story, which includes the Ghost of Christmas Past,” he said. “Most Americans would rather the story remain fiction and millions of tax dollars be paid to real ghosts. We should stop paying dead people — full stop.”
Ernst, who will retire at the end of his term at the beginning of 2027, previously helped pass the “Stop Improper Payments to Deceased Act”, which came into force in 2020. The law strengthened interagency sharing of information about deceased persons. But he argues there is more work left. He co-sponsored the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased Act, which passed the Senate but not the House and would require the SSA to share death records with the Treasury Department for its Pay-to-Make system, according to a report by The New York Post.
Congress granted the Treasury Department access to the SSA’s Complete Death Master File in 2023, resulting in the department blocking $31 million in fraud and improper payments. A recent General Accountability Office report also found that more than $94 million was spent on Obamacare payments to households where a deceased person was enrolled.
In many of these cases, individuals used deceased people’s Social Security numbers to access benefits, adding another layer to an already complex problem. Lawmakers now argue the only way forward is stronger data sharing, tighter enforcement and a more aggressive effort to stop fraud before it happens, according to a report by The New York Post.
FAQ
How much inappropriate Social Security money went to dead people?
More than $186 million was paid out to deceased individuals, according to the watchdog review.
Who is pushing for stronger protections?
Senator Joni Ernst is calling on the SSA and Congress to take stronger action to prevent fraud.
