Deceased Beneficiaries and Recipients Who Do Not Have Death Information on the Numident
Office Affiliation: The Office of Audit
Audit Report Number: A-09-14-14068
When SSA receives a report that a beneficiary or recipient has died, it records the date of death on the Master Beneficiary (MBR) or Supplemental Security Record (SSR) and terminates benefits. In addition, SSA’s Death Alert, Control, and Update System (DACUS) receives, processes, and records death information on SSA’s Numident. SSA uses death information from the Numident to create a record of death information called the Death Master File (DMF), which is available to Federal agencies and the public.
In prior audits, we found that approximately 1.4 million deceased beneficiaries’ deaths were not on the Numident and DMF. Our prior audits included several recommendations for corrective action. SSA agreed with our recommendations and stated it was developing a plan to redesign DACUS to correct death discrepancies between the MBR/SSR and Numident.
The objective of this report is to evaluate the adequacy of SSA's recently implemented controls to improve the recording of deceased beneficiaries’ deaths on the Numident and its plans to address the approximately 1.4 million deceased beneficiaries who have no death information on the Numident.