While many Americans worry that the Social Security Administration won’t have enough money left to pay their benefits when they retire, the agency is doling out millions of dollars to people who aren’t even alive.
The Social Security inspector general estimates that the agency has made $40.3 million in erroneous payments to deceased beneficiaries — even though the administration had already recorded their deaths in its records. The estimate is based on a sample tested during its most recent audit in January 2008, the watchdog agency said.
One man told CNNMoney that he notified Social Security four years ago that his mother had passed away, but he still can’t get the agency to stop sending her checks every month.
To be fair, sometimes they are lightening efficient. My mother died last December 31. On Jan 3 her SSN payment was direct deposited to her checking account. On Jan 4 it was swept back by SSA. Easy come, easy go. The funeral home had sent in the notice of death to SSA on Friday, Dec 31 and they made good use of the information for sure.
This is what happens when you basically have no accountability. The bureaucrats get paid regardless.
Far more worrisome to me, as a taxpayer, are the deceased who are not being reported and the survivors are still claiming the benefit. But most worrisome are the people who do not deserve to receive at all, or do not exist and yet receive. Wherever there is money given out, there will be fraud.
“Wherever there is money given out, there will be fraud.”
Peaking of fraud involving the deceased, I wonder how many of these Social Security recipients have voted, post mortem.
The bureaucracy of the SS agency is pretty thin. The cost to maintain it is small, compared to the expenses of insurance companies.
Actually, wherever there is money to be made, there will be fraud. Some corporations use fraud, but it’s protected under “free speech.” As we deregulate them, they can say what they want, and then sue those who try to hold them accountable.
$40 million is a lot of money. But what’s more impressive is that up to $60 BILLION dollars has been overspent in Iraq, mainly to private contractors. We could have spent that $60 billion dollars on infrastructure here, putting Americans to work. Instead we complain about 1/1000th that amount that a poor person gets wrongly.
#5–In summation, if you are rich its bad to steal but if you are “poor” its OK to steal? Got it.
[blockquote] The bureaucracy of the SS agency is pretty thin. The cost to maintain it is small, compared to the expenses of insurance companies. [/blockquote]
Maybe, maybe not — the comparison to insurance companies is almost entirely inapposite — but to the non-Soviet mind, efficiency means not just running the program at the lowest possible administrative cost but also assuring that the[url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/ssps/ssp15.pdf] net returns to the worker[/url] are as large and secure as possible for any given level of contributions.
[i]The bureaucracy of the SS agency is pretty thin. The cost to maintain it is small, compared to the expenses of insurance companies[/i]
How about compared to the Post Office? That comparison is just as valid as the one to insurance companies: apples to oranges.
The SSA administers a ponzi scheme. Insurance companies (when not hamstrung by Govt regulations) administer an actuarial shared/pooled risk model.