Is Social Security Really Paying Ghosts: The Social Security Administration is being urged by Senator Joni Ernst to enhance its procedures for stopping benefits to deceased people. Over $186 million in payments to deceased individuals were discovered during a recent watchdog probe; relatives frequently kept the money for years without being discovered. Ernst is an advocate for more robust measures to prevent this theft and secure public funds.
Following reports that millions of public cash were inadvertently transferred to deceased individuals, the Social Security Administration is under increased scrutiny. Sen. Joni Ernst brought attention to the problem, which has rekindled anger over years of illicit payments that have eluded federal authorities. Lawmakers are calling for immediate reforms as new examples come to light. Sharp criticism, fresh evaluations, and proposals for Congress to intervene with more robust protections have all been triggered by this problem.
In a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Ernst, who is well-known for opposing unnecessary government spending, issued a direct warning. She wrote on Tuesday, “The time for the catch-me-if-you-can Social Security fraudsters must end.” “I would like you to keep using all of your administrative authority to cease sending checks to deceased individuals.”
Why Is The Social Security Administration Being Scrutinized Again?
The SSA has long been under fire for wrongly paying benefits to people who have passed away, with some families collecting the payments for years before being discovered. Over $186 million in payments were sent to deceased individuals over a number of years, according to a watchdog assessment. Lawmakers are irritated not just by the fact that the payments were made, but also by the fact that they frequently went unnoticed for years.
Ernst suggested that rather to only responding after fraud is discovered, the organization should prioritize prevention. She gave instances when authorities later found out that deceased people were still getting checks, many of which had been stolen by relatives who had concealed their deaths.
Which Fraud Cases Demonstrate How Serious The Issue Is?
The decades-long cases associated with this problem show how readily fraud can continue when oversight fails. In one instance, Canadian national Ellis Kingsep is accused of cashing more than $420,000 in checks intended for his mother, who would have been 103 years old, between 1995 and 2023. According to a New York Post article, investigators eventually discovered reproductions of his mother’s signature and books on how to create phony identification.
In a different instance, Donald Felix Zampach of California was charged with stealing more than $800,000 and hiding the death of his mother for more than thirty years. More recently, San Diego resident Josephine Guinauli Aquino entered a guilty plea to concealing her father-in-law’s 2019 death and obtaining more than $175,000. The New York Post said that she faked at least 150 bank checks during her journey.
Afshin Setoodeh, whose mother departed the nation in 2019 and passed away in 2022, was the subject of the most recent prosecution. Setoodeh continued to accept the cash without disclosing her departure, eventually pocketing about $55,000.
At least $186 million in payments were sent to “payees who may not have been using the funds for beneficiaries’ needs,” according to a 2023 research by the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration. According to a report by The New York Post, the assessment discovered 14,877 complaints of misuse spanning several years and stated that “SSA did not properly or timely investigate 12,050 allegations.”
In Order To Prevent Fraudulent Payments, What Improvements Are Legislators Advocating?
The problem has been so chronic that Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has turned his attention to it. According to Musk, his team found proof that “tens of millions” of deceased individuals were still listed as living in the SSA system. A 2024 watchdog investigation concluded that approximately $71.8 billion of the over $8.6 trillion in payments were “improper,” even though that number seemed exaggerated.
Ernst cautioned that taxpayers were effectively “paying actual ghosts” in a statement with a Christmas theme. “Everyone is familiar with the Christmas tale that features the Ghost of Christmas Past,” she remarked. The majority of Americans would rather that the tale stay fictional and that real ghosts not be paid for with millions of government funds. We must completely cease compensating deceased individuals.
Ernst previously assisted in passing the “Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act,” which went into force in 2020. Ernst will retire at the end of her tenure in early 2027. The statute made it easier for agencies to share information about deceased people. However, she contends that more work has to be done. According to a story by The New York Post, she co-sponsored the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act, which passed the Senate but not the House and would have required the SSA to exchange death records with the Treasury Department for its Do Not Pay system.
In 2023, the Treasury Department halted $31 million in fraud and unlawful payments after Congress gave it access to SSA’s Full Death Master File. Additionally, more than $94 million was spent on Obamacare payments to families where a deceased person was enrolled, according to a recent General Accountability Office audit.
In many of those instances, persons obtained benefits using the Social Security numbers of deceased people, which further exacerbated an already complex issue. According to a New York Post report, lawmakers now contend that more aggressive efforts to prevent fraud before it occurs, stricter monitoring, and improved data-sharing are the only ways to move forward.