• empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    Bit of an overblown title and a nothing burger. 6.5m records of people were simply never closed off with a recorded death. The SSA requires a certified death certificate to close off a file and many of those were lost or never filed by the local authority back in ye olden days of forgotten paperwork.

    They can still technically be used fraudulently, for credit and bank accounts and other applications that require SSN’s, if scammers were able to obtain the full info of the lost people. but only 13 of these records were collecting benefits.

    • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Flawed was a poor word choice. Outdated or unverified/unverifiable would have been better.

      As the person with the SSA says they work based on verifiable facts and records not assumptions. Hence why 6.5million SSN’s for people to old to be alive are still active even if that is impossible. Their records are as accurate as they can make them without unlimited time and resources.

  • xyzzy@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    That’s cool. You’re probably right, Elon. Better just shut down their payments and delete them from the system. I bet that’ll go well for you.