Why Social Security Needs a Good Audit and Housecleaning

[Marener]

Please show in FULL CONTEXT what unwarranted assumption I and/or Elon Musk is making.

Do you think that if the Social Security Administration doesn't know whether the people it sends checks to are living or dead that we shouldn't care?

News flash. An audit is to determine what is going on and what needs fixing. Musk is one of the best at recognizing when that is the case.

What objection do you have for that?

Already did. You assumed that they’re all recipients of social security.

Musk claims that they’re “obviously” dead.

Neither assumption is warranted.

I’m quite sure SSA knows a lot. Far more than Musk knows.

For someone who likes to demand full context, you don’t seem to mind Musk tweeting random bits of information with zero context.

 

[debbiedowner]

Oh, I also believe this is the third thread posted on the same subject in the past 2 days.

 

[WorldWatcher]

I didn't say or even suggest they were all Social Security recipients.

You litterally said in the first sentence of the OP that the chart was the number of living social security recipients.

WW
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[Foxfyre]

If you are already receiving SS checks then the funeral home or cremation service notifies SS. That is what has happen with the past 5 people that died in my family and several of my clients.

But who is to say that all Funeral homes offer that service? Probably most at least in larger towns and cities do offer that service but they are not required to do so by law. And many--my husband and I for example--will bypass the funeral home altogether and go straight to the crematorium. We have already paid for that to be done.

The Social Security System needs a much more fool proof system to keep their record system clean and I bet the DOGE team will come up with one.

 

[Foxfyre]

Already did. You assumed that they’re all recipients of social security.

Musk claims that they’re “obviously” dead.

Neither assumption is warranted.

I’m quite sure SSA knows a lot. Far more than Musk knows.

For someone who likes to demand full context, you don’t seem to mind Musk tweeting random bits of information with zero context.

Where did I say I assumed they were all recipients of Social Security? Since I don't know that, I am pretty darn sure I didn't say that.

 

[NetJedi]

Where did I say I assumed they were all recipients of Social Security? Since I don't know that, I am pretty darn sure I didn't say that.

You said it in the first sentence of your opening post.

The numbers posted by Elon aren't counts of actual recipients it's the counts of SSN's in the system by age bracket (i.e. POTENTIAL recipients).

 

[Foxfyre]

You litterally said in the first sentence of the OP that the chart was the number of living social security recipients.

WW
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View attachment 1079934

Okay I didn't realize I had to literally spell it out but I should have said people who are recipients or potential recipients of social security or people with social security numbers. Obviously only a small percentage of those under age 62+ are receiving social security benefits.

 

[NetJedi]

Okay I didn't realize I had to literally spell it out but I should have said people who are recipients or potential recipients of social security or people with social security numbers. Obviously only a small percentage of those under age 62+ are receiving social security benefits.

After 74K posts here you didn't realize hyper-partisan numbskulls were going to nitpick everything you wrote looking to deflect from the actual point you were attempting to make?

Get with the program already FF

 

[Foxfyre]

After 74K posts here you didn't realize hyper-partisan numbskulls were going to nitpick everything you wrote looking to deflect from the actual point you were attempting to make?

Get with the program already FF

I am properly chastised my friend. I do sometimes forget about their reading comprehension deficiency and inability to put things into intended context.

But oh well. My bad. I'll try to do better.

(But the Social Security Administration needs as thorough an audit as any other federal government agency.)

 

[WorldWatcher]

(But the Social Security Administration needs as thorough an audit as any other federal government agency.)

I agree 100%.

Congress should:

• Authorize and fund a proper audit.
• Authorize and fund the upgrades from the current system using an outdated language (COBOL) and database to one more in line with current computer standards.
• Authorize and fund data integration initiatives between State Department responsible for vital records (births, deaths, etc.) and such agencies as State Departments of Taxation, IRS, SSA, HHS, and Federal Strate Department.

We've known the SSA's computer systems were out of date for the last 20-30 years.

WW

 

[BluesLegend]

Let's start with the $2 trillion congress stole from social security...I mean 'borrowed' with no means of paying us back and what they spent OUR money on.

 

[Zincwarrior]

Musk/trump ard fucking us

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/17/doge-social-security-musk/

 

[kyzr]

I agree 100%. Congress should:

• Authorize and fund a proper audit.
• Authorize and fund the upgrades from the current system using an outdated language (COBOL) and database to one more in line with current computer standards.
• Authorize and fund data integration initiatives between State Department responsible for vital records (births, deaths, etc.) and such agencies as State Departments of Taxation, IRS, SSA, HHS, and Federal State Department.

We've known the SSA's computer systems were out of date for the last 20-30 years. WW

Since when does congress need to authorize an audit?
The IGs do audits all the time and never catch anything.

Office of the Inspector General

The Office of the Inspector General is directly responsible for meeting the statutory mission of promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of Social Security Administration programs and operations and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in...

oig.ssa.gov

Inspector General Reports

Trump hired DOGE like Reagan hired the Grace Commission in 1984.
DOGE is hired under the President's Article 2 Authority

After DOGE files recommendations Congress can act on them, or not.

 

[Foxfyre]

Since when does congress need to authorize an audit?
The IGs do audits all the time and never catch anything.

Office of the Inspector General

The Office of the Inspector General is directly responsible for meeting the statutory mission of promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of Social Security Administration programs and operations and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in...

oig.ssa.gov

Inspector General Reports

Trump hired DOGE like Reagan hired the Grace Commission in 1984.
DOGE is hired under the President's Article 2 Authority

After DOGE files recommendations Congress can act on them, or not.

Perhaps that is why most of the IGs were fired.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Nor does it say that they are not. It is really easy for a widow or widower or sibling or offspring to just not tell Social Security that a person died. Some could be collecting Social Security for decades if nobody is really looking at that. An audit of the whole system is appropriate.

Then produce examples.

It's called evidence.

Produce it.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Whether those people are currently receiving benefits or not is not the point.

The fact that you have people on the SS rolls that are not possibly still alive and that are not flagged as dead means that :

1.) The SS doesn't know which people on its rolls are dead and which are alive (across ALL age groups); This calls into question the veracity of ALL data currently being used by the SS Administration. Can you imagine a private annuity not knowing which of its customers are dead and which are still alive? Yeah, me neither.

2.) Any SSN of a dead person can be used to collect benefits by fraudsters; we just had congressional testimony detailing how bad the Federal Government identity verification systems are which means these are easy targets for criminals.

3.) The possibility that the SSN's of dead people are being used RIGHT NOW to fraudulently collect benefits is very high.

4.) Future SS liabilities are calculated based on these rolls and policy decisions are made based off of those calculations, this information calls into question whether we actually know what the current fiscal condition of the SS System or not.

This discovery is a VERY big deal.

Show us the number of people on the rolls who are not alive.

 

[Marener]

Where did I say I assumed they were all recipients of Social Security? Since I don't know that, I am pretty darn sure I didn't say that.

Perhaps you are not smart enough to have this conversation. Or perhaps not honest enough.

Elon musk posted a chart showing the number of living social security recipients for each age group in America

 

[Foxfyre]

Then produce examples.

It's called evidence.

Produce it.

Here's the first case I came to doing a quick cursory search:

Husband & wife sentenced for theft of deceased father’s Social Security benefits

A Kansas couple was sentenced to prison for illegally taking proceeds from a relative’s Social Security and retirement benefits for years after his death.

www.justice.gov

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

That's two. Not nearly enough but a start.

Thanks foxfyre.

The father had been receiving monthly Social Security and retirement pension payments as direct deposits to his bank account. After July 2016, $68,637 in pension payments and $147,429 in Social Security payments were deposited into the bank account. Lynn and Kirk Ritter did not report the death, and instead without authority, wrote checks on the deceased’s account and transferred funds into their bank accounts to use for their own personal benefit. The Ritters paid the funds back during their prosecution.

Mark Underwood, Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration’s Kansas City Regional Office said, “These sentencings show the Labor Department is committed to ensuring that justice is served for those who steal from retirement plans.”

 

[initforme]

Social security is one of the greatest things america has ever done. Millions upon millions of citizens have benefitted. It's irrefutable.