[Just The News] This week's Golden Horseshoe goes to the Social Security Administration, which paid an estimated $79 million to the deceased in just three states over a 10-year period, according to a final audit report by the agency's Office of Inspector General.
"We estimate SSA issued approximately $79 million in payments after death to 1,127 beneficiaries and four representative payees who died in Alabama, Georgia, or Illinois between January 1978 and December 2018," the report found.
The watchdog identified an additional 53,486 deceased non-beneficiaries in those states whose death information was not in the SSA's Numerical Identification System.
Examples of improper payments to the deceased the inspector general found include: |