Posted on 12/28/2013 6:02:42 AM PST by Libloather
Federal auditors said Friday the Social Security Administration still struggles with a basic problem — figuring out who is dead and who is not.
The question is a crucial one, since federal agencies rely on the administration to cross-match data on deceased persons and avoid paying out federally funded benefits to people who aren’t alive, or to establish accurate benefits for survivors.
The administration also maintains a “Death Master File” that is available to the public.
“SSA’s methods for processing death reports may result in inaccurate, incomplete or untimely information for users of its death data,” the Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, said in the new report. “Consequently, this could lead to improper payments if benefit-paying agencies rely on this data.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
But they all vote.
The feds should pay as long as these dead people keep voting Democrat. Their families expect it.
The gummint wants all the money it can get ... look at all the ways they cheat us OUT of our money.
When My first wife died in June 2004, the following election (Nov 2004) she had disappeared from the voting books of the small town we live in.
I did nothing to notify anyone about anything and I was told there is an ongoing search of obits and stuff that they find out who, and cross them off.
Besides ... when I die, my second wife gets my SS anyway.
So I'm dead (the SS name on the role) but my wife gets the check ... knarf still gets a check.
I think the article is intentionally misleading.
Just check the Voter Registration Listings. LOTS of dead LibTards there!
Sounds like a late cover story re: The supposed Adam Lanza death date FU; the fastest gun in Conn.
Your wife may be entitled to Social Security benefits, which are based upon yours, but she is not going to be using your account. Social Security will set up her own account, at that time - and she has to “qualify” for it to happen.
Survivors Planner: If You Are The Survivor
http://www.ssa.gov/survivorplan/ifyou.htm
Just as you plan for your family’s protection if you die, you should consider the Social Security benefits that may be available if you are the survivor—that is, the spouse or child—of a worker who dies. That person must have worked long enough under Social Security to qualify for benefits.
How Your Spouse Earns Social Security Survivors Benefits
A worker can earn up to four credits each year. In 2013, for example, your spouse can earn one credit for each $1,160 of wages or self-employment income. When your spouse has earned $4,640, he or she has earned his or her four credits for the year.
The number of credits needed to provide benefits for survivors depends on the worker’s age when he or she dies. The younger a person is, the fewer credits he or she must have for family members to receive survivors benefits. But no one needs more than 40 credits (10 years of work) to be eligible for any Social Security benefit.
However, benefits can be paid to the worker’s children and the surviving spouse who is caring for the children even if the worker doesn’t have the required number of credits. They can get benefits if the worker has credit for one and one-half years of work (6 credits) in the three years just before his or her death.
Well ... the government knew exactly when my dad died, and his checks stopped immediately. Some people told me I should notify Social Security of his death, but I think they knew about his death even before some of our relatives did.
Do you mean if a wife has never worked but was a wife only ... she cannot collect survivor's benefits ?
I’m not a Social Security legal expert - but it does sound like that.
HOWEVER, I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night ... :-) ...
Is/was. There. ANYTHING. Central. Planning. Can. DO. Right?
If Social Security says you are dead and you aren’t, how do you prove it to them?
Our local funeral home director takes care of that by mailing in the proper forms to whatever federal agency needs the forms.
What the feds do with the paperwork after that is up to them.
Why not check with the IRS, they seem to know from whom they are going to get money, where to find them and how much they owe, don't they!
Yep, they can't figure out who is dead, alive, who is legal, illegal, who is registered to vote, or not vote, who qualifies for food stamps, or not, right?
I have a strong suggestion, these government programs, government workers, who keep "malfunctioning" and sending out Social Security checks to dead folks (themselves), dittos for EITC (Earned Income Tax "Credits"), dittos for food stamps, dittos for voting, dittos for unemployments, dittos, dittos ad nauseum.
Let's shut down every one of those programs, "retrain" their employees and give them one month of "unemployment benefits" period, then send them out for bids to UPS, FEDEX, Amazon, or whomever else manages to get orders out to customers within three days of their promised delivery.
No permanent contracts either and no gloming on to their own employees, then reassess every six months.
Shoot maybe some of those former gub'mint employees can get hired, if they have no felony convictions on their record, which is checked by ordinary citizens, with no axes to gain.
My mother is receiving my father’s SS benefit, but she has to fill out a form every year stating that she has not re-married. You would think they would require something similar from everyone - a notarized form proving you are not dead & still eligible for benefits. ;-)
THAT'S the point I was understanding from StarTraveler's post.
Because my mother never worked outside of the home after marriage, she was not eligible for SS. But of course, she could get my father’s SS. My point was that if they have a method of checking for re-marriage, then it seems they could do something similar just to verify that the people they’re sending checks to are still alive. There have certainly been enough stories of family members not informing them of the death of a SS recipient & living off the monthly checks.
I was confusing the work/no work stipulation.
Who tracks all the people who do not live in this country?
I don’t know about this post. A week after my husband died, all I had to do was take his birth certificate, death certificate and original SS card to the Social Security office and everything was changed by the next month.
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