Social Security denies paying benefits to millions of dead people

Less than 0.33% of more than three million deaths a year are errnoneously reported to Social Security, as the government works to correct records of people aged 100 and over, the Social Security Administration (SSA) said Sunday.

States primarily report deaths to Social Security, but reports also come from family members, funeral homes, federal agencies and financial institutions.

"Instances when a person is erroneously reported as deceased to Social Security can be devasting to the individual, spouse, and dependent children," SSA said. "Benefits are stopped in the short term which can cause financial hardship until fixed and benefits restored, and the process to prove an erroneous death will always seem too long and challenging."

People who might be incorrectly listed as dead should contact their Social Security office as soon as possible and bring at least one piece of current identification, the administration said.

The update on incorrectly reported deaths follows Trump and his government-efficiency adviser Elon Musk saying dead people aged more than 100 are receiving Social Security benefits.

In response, Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security, said those individuals didn't have a date associated with their death, but they weren't "necessarily receiving benefits."

"The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record," he said in a statement. "These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.

Earlier in March, the Social Security Administration said it had made "significant progress in identifying and correcting beneficiary records of people 100 years old or older."

“We are steadfast in our commitment to root out fraud, waste, and abuse in our programs, and actively correcting the inconsistencies with missing dates of death," Dudek said in a statement.