Stopping Payments, Detecting Fraud after Beneficiary Deaths
SSA depends on various sources for timely death reporting, and if deaths aren’t reported or concealed, that can potentially lead to improper payments and fraud.
SSA depends on various sources for timely death reporting, and if deaths aren’t reported or concealed, that can potentially lead to improper payments and fraud.
Improving controls to ensure SSA takes timely and proper actions to resolve death information on the Numident for suspended beneficiaries is vital to preventing improper payments. The Numident contains all Social Security numbers since they were first issued in 1936.
A recent OIG audit report found that some SSI recipients might also be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits.
The average wait time for service at an SSA field office was about 25 minutes in Fiscal Year 2017, up from about 19 minutes in Fiscal Year 2010.
Four numbers that highlight our investigative, audit, and legal accomplishments from the recent reporting period.
Removing Social Security numbers from non-essential documents is a step toward reducing identity theft and SSN misuse.
OIG auditors recently estimated the amount of misdirected benefit payments from 2014 to 2016 was considerably less than in 2013.
Through Electronic Death Registration, SSA and the states aim to improve the accuracy and timeliness of death information
OIG auditors recently matched California death records with SSA's payment records and identified payments to the deceased.
A provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 that aims to improve SSA program administration recently went into effect.