Social Security audit finds dead people getting checks

[babylonsister]

Social Security audit finds dead people getting checks

By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration has continued to pay millions of dollars in benefits to dead Americans, and other elderly U.S. residents are at risk of losing badly needed aid because they're improperly recorded as deceased, federal investigators warn in a new report.

The consequences of either bureaucratic error can be severe.

"The addition of erroneous death entries can lead to benefit termination, cause severe financial hardship and distress to affected individuals," investigators with the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General noted in the report, which was quietly released on Sunday.

The mistakes cost taxpayers and individual beneficiaries in different ways. Taxpayers are losing money when benefits are paid to the deceased. Individuals get into trouble when they're prematurely pronounced dead.

In Southern California and elsewhere last year, investigators analyzed 305 Social Security beneficiaries who were recorded as deceased in their Social Security Administration files. At least 140 of them were still alive.

All told, investigators say, more than 6,000 current Social Security beneficiaries are recorded as being deceased. An untold number of them are still, in fact, alive.

"There is no rhyme or reason," the Scott Nishioki, chief of staff for Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., said Tuesday of the recurring Social Security problems. "Often, it's probably just a clerical error."

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/71069.html

[regnaD kciN]

1. Yes, but are they CASHING them...?

;-)

[zbdent]

3. no, their kids are ... how do you think freeptards pay their internet bill?

[obliviously]

6. They vote on a regular basis! N/T

[Kadie]

8. Man allegedly dresses up as dead mom in weird scam

This guy went to great lengths....


Man allegedly dresses up as dead mom in weird scam

Wed Jun 17, 3:11 pm ET

NEW YORK – A 49-year-old man has been charged with dressing up as his dead mother as part of a creepy scam to collect government benefits. Thomas Parkin was to appear in court in Brooklyn on Thursday to face grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges. The name of his lawyer was not immediately available.

Prosecutors allege that Parkin concealed the 2003 death of his mother, Irene Prusik, by giving false information for her death certificate. They say for six years, he collected tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security and housing benefits using her identity.

Authorities say Parkin wore a wig and a dress while renewing his mother's driver's license earlier this year.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090617/ap_on_fe_st/us_dead_mom_walking_2



This May 2009 photo from video provided by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office shows, according to prosecutors, Thomas Parkin, 49, at left, on a Department of Motor Vehicles security camera, dressed up as his mother, who died in 2003, as part of a scam to collect her government benefits. At right is Mhilton Rimolo, a friend of Parkin's whom authorities say acted as an accomplice in the scheme, posing as the mother's nephew when going to cash checks and do other business, prosecutors said.
(AP Photo/Brooklyn District Attorney's office)

[TahitiNut]

19. Direct deposit into a joint account ... just keeps on going.

:shrug:

[DURHAM D]

2. Its probably because SS is doing what other institutions are doing.

In order to save time they use just the first 4 letters of the last name and just the last 4 digits of the SS number for data entry.

So they make mistakes - not to worry. Just call them and they will fix it going forward.

This method saves time and money - only 8 key strokes instead of 20 - 30 key strokes.

[mysuzuki2]

4. NO, they do not-

I have worked for Soc Sec for 30 years. The entire SS number gets entered. What causes this is several things- the person entering the SS # transposes digits and does not notice the error-hurrying and trying to get all the work done; a nursing home or hospital mistakenly entering a patient as deceased and that info traansferring to SS records; a check being returned by an institution with the wrong reason of return box checked. It's an easy thing to happen but a bitch and a half to fix. Death info can get into a number of data bases and it's sometimes hard to ferret them all out. Children of deceased beneficiaries who cash checks are prosecuted and often sent to jail. About 55 million people chet SS checks every month. About 999 out of a thousand get the correct check on time. The absolute numbers of errors, however, are large. One of my jobs is to fix them and we are usually able to do that fairly quickly. After dealing with management, especially the political appointees, however, I'm totally amazed we don't have a lot more screw-ups than we do. The average employees try very hard to serve the public.

[Kansas Wyatt]

13. Can you kill me off...

And turn me into a French citizen?

I don't know French, but I'll learn, because they have better health care.

[TahitiNut]

20. Every social security office I've been to has V ERY patient people working there.

It's not a job I could do without losing it, I'm afraid. I'd need a padded closet to go into just to scream, periodically.

[Historic NY]

5. Its time to publish lists with places & address's..

[shadowknows69]

7. That's fucking great. No wonder I get to wait two years for my appeal hearing

It will clearly take them that long to determine whether or not I'm dead.

[Historic NY]

10. 4yrs here and then they forgot to tell me..I'm still waiting for a final settlement.

[NNN0LHI]

9. I will tell you when my father died last year SS just about made it impossible to report his death

I had to talk to a machine for at least 15 minutes before I got through to a human to report his death. There never was an number option to report the death of a recipient.

I bet I had to say to the machine that I was calling report the death of my father, which I really was in no mood to repeat over and over again, at least ten times before the machine got the message and understood that none of its options fit my reason for calling.

What a pain that was. To others out there if one of your parents dies don't let your surviving parent make this call. It is distressing as hell. Do it for them.

Don

[RB TexLa]

11. We didn't have to report anything, they called at 8 central the Monday after my mother died

to let us know they had received notice.

[SoCalDem]

15. Same here.. We just mailed them a death certificate via certified mail

and returned the next check that arrived...marked deceased

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. We had similar problems in the past with a deceased parent

It seems like the vast majority of the transactions go through like they should but the exceptions are damn near impossible to fix in a timely manner.

[Historic NY]

12. I put the check in the mail unopened return to sender - deceased.

[FrenchieCat]

14. All this story does is make folks think...."the government can't do shit right!

so why should I want them to provide me with health care?"

Reminds me of the welfare fraud that was highlighted to demonize welfare itself.

Looks like it might work.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

17. The horror stories are real and real people are impacted. The real question is what percentage

and in some case accountability

[Selatius]

18. The percentage is hopefully below 1%. If it's higher than that, we've identified a big problem.

Frankly, there should be a strong auditing arm overseeing Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid anyway. Nobody wants to lose money on fraud and innocent mistakes like sending checks to a dead person. If Obama is serious about cutting back spending, he should start auditing all the major programs, including national defense. I bet the Pentagon is a beast as far as losing money goes.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. There is a lack of metics and I doubt any will be gathered

You are asking a group to put itself on report. Doesn't happen often or accurately

[Selatius]

23. Well, couldn't we require the GAO to run annual audits on programs?

Find out at least where the money is coming in and going out?

[dmr]

22. I think you're right.

I've never had a problem dealing with the SSA, or any Federal agency. They have all been courteous and very helpful.

I imagine there will be plenty of stories planted to scare people into believing that waste and inefficiencies are rampant within our government.