IG audit finds government issued $40 million in Social Security payments to dead people

The government sees dead people … all the time.

According to the Office of the Inspector General (IG) at the Social Security Administration (SSA), the millions of dollars in Social Security payments went to dead people in Maryland and Michigan.

The March 2019 internal audit discovered that the SSA paid out more than $40 million to roughly 500 dead people. It seems the dead aren’t just voting Democrat, they’re getting their Social Security checks.

Between 1971 and 2010, the SSA handed out checks to 57 dead individuals from Michigan. Between 1979 and 2015, $16.9 million in payments were sent to 145 dead people.

This comes as a separate SSA report determined that $25 million in Social Security payments were made to 336 dead Texans.

The IG report concluded:

SSA identified 160 beneficiaries who were likely deceased and in current pay status. Fifteen beneficiaries were determined to be alive. For the remaining 145, we determined Maryland and Michigan death information was not always recorded on SSA’s records. As a result, SSA issued approximately $16.9 million in payments to 145 individuals who reportedly died in Maryland from 1979 through 2015 or Michigan from 1971 through 2010. Correcting these cases represents an opportunity for SSA to reduce its exposure to future overpayments and improve the accuracy and completeness of the death information it maintains.

As of January 9, 2019, SSA had suspended or terminated benefits and added death information to its records for 95 of the 145 beneficiaries. SSA had posted about $10.5 million in overpayments. In addition, [IG] continued reviewing the remaining cases. Therefore, we made no recommendations for further corrective action.

Oh, well. It won’t matter anymore because Social Security is on the brink of insolvency. Nobody will get payments in the future – dead or alive.