By Naveen Athrappully
About $33 million in Social Security benefit payments were issued to dead people in New York state, the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a Sept. 16 memorandum.
In its analysis, the OIG reviewed data on roughly 1.5 million individuals recorded as deceased between January 2008 and December 2023 in New York state, excluding New York City. That information was then compared with the SSA’s payment records and the Enumeration Verification System.
OIG identified 829 dead beneficiaries from the New York state data who were in “current or suspended payment status” as of July 2025, according to the memo.
“We estimate SSA issued these beneficiaries approximately $33 million in payments after their deaths,” the OIG said in the memo. “Identifying and correcting these discrepancies would prevent approximately $8 million in additional payments after death over 12 months.”
In one case, SSA was found to have paid roughly $167,392 to a retirement beneficiary who died in March 2020. The agency’s records did not contain the individual’s date of death, the memo said, adding that the beneficiary was still in current pay as of July.
In another case, SSA issued around $84,691 in the name of a disability beneficiary who died in November 2019. The payments were only suspended in June last year, the OIG said.
According to the memo, once OIG completes the analysis of all 829 cases, it will refer them to the SSA for review.
“SSA’s review would involve obtaining a death certificate or a statement from a funeral director or obtaining a death report from a relative of the decedent,” OIG said in the memo. “If SSA confirms the beneficiary is deceased, it should terminate benefits and initiate recovery of improper payments.”
On Dec. 17, 2024, OIG published a memorandum containing a similar death data analysis, but for New York City.
The OIG obtained data of 2,683 beneficiaries listed as dead in New York City data, and were put in current or suspended payment status by the SSA as of October 2023.
SSA is estimated to have issued approximately $91 million in payments to these beneficiaries even after their deaths were recorded in the New York City data, according to December’s memo.
“We further estimate identifying and correcting these discrepancies would prevent an additional $24 million in payments after death over 12 months,” it said at the time.
The Epoch Times reached out to the SSA for comment regarding the findings, but did not receive a response by publication time.
‘Tip of the Iceberg’
In January, the Treasury said it had clawed back more than $31 million in incorrect federal payments issued to deceased individuals. The action followed Congress’s granting the Treasury three years of access to the SSA’s Full Death Master File, which contains more than 142 million records.
“These results are just the tip of the iceberg,” the Treasury Department’s then-Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk said in a statement at the time. “Congress granting permanent access to the Full Death Master File will significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars.”
Under the Trump administration, efforts to ensure payments are not issued in dead people’s names have strengthened.
On March 5, the SSA said it had made significant progress in “identifying and correcting beneficiary records of people 100 years old or older.”
On April 24, the Department of Government Efficiency said that records of around 11 million Social Security recipients aged 120 and above have been marked as deceased.
Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security, told The Epoch Times that closing the records of individuals who were “implausibly old” was an important step in countering fraud.
“Criminals may use those individuals’ information to commit fraud. As we close the records, we have safeguards in place to ensure that we do not adversely affect individuals who are still alive,” Dudek said in April.
“No instances have arisen to date where an implausibly old individual whose record we closed actually contacted the agency for reinstatement. We have a process in place to reinstate individuals in our records if we ever make an error.”
Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.
