GOVERNMENT WASTE: Audit Reveals Tens Of Millions Of Dollars In Social Security Payments Went To Dead People – By Josh Hammer (Dailywire) / March 26 2019
The Office of the Inspector General (IG) at the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released a March 2019 internal audit that sought to determine whether the SSA has been doling out benefits to dead people in Maryland and Michigan. The answer, as it turns out, is a resounding “yes.” Overall, the IG found that the SSA had paid out nearly $42 million to about 500 dead people.
Yes, really.
The Daily Caller reports:
The SSA identified 160 individuals who had possibly died, with 57 from Michigan from 1971 through 2010 and 103 from Maryland from 1979 through 2015. Around $16.9 million in payments were issued to 145 individuals who reportedly died in these states. The remaining 15 were alive.
There was an instance where a woman received payments for a person who died in 2000 and used it for personal benefit. She pleaded guilty for theft and was required to pay nearly $170,000 back to SSA. Another person also received Social Security benefits that was posted under the deceased person’s record since 1997. The beneficiary had died in 1974.
As The Daily Caller also notes, a separate Texas-specific SSA audit found that nearly $25 million in Social Security payments had been given to 336 dead Texans.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/45150/government-waste-audit-reveals-tens-millions-josh-hammer
