3 ms·

Why not just suspend payments if there is no traceable information of someone's personal activities - like credit card transactions - in some time, say a year,

Why not just suspend payments if there is no traceable information of someone's personal activities - like credit card transactions - in some time, say a year, and then if the person is alive they just need to call a hotline if they stop getting payments, prove they are still alive, and have them reinstated?

mrktf 2y ago
In my county it is solved problem - we have social worker to come and meet person elderly person.
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
Being in the database does not imply recieving money. Even being in the database and not marked dead does not imply that. 98% of the records discussed in this document are not receiving money from the SSA and the vast majority that are recieving money, are simply people over the age of 100 which is a thing that happens sometimes when you have a population of 350 million.
acdha 2y ago
Basically it comes down to the cost of being wrong. If you decide that someone is dead and stop sending checks, you might learn otherwise when their congressional representatives or reporters start asking why you failed to perform your legally-mandated duties at great cost to the retiree. Mailing a check is a lot cheaper than getting in the hot seat because you cut off some disabled veteran’s rent. Older people often have disabilities or care situations which make contact less reliable, they’re more likely to use cash or have relatives do their shopping, etc. so you’re left with relatively slow or expensive options like paying people to visit in person (which has all kinds of problems around privacy and access - Social Security has a legal obligation to serve someone who lives abroad, on a reservation without paved roads, etc.) and any other kind of verification system won’t help with fraud since people collecting their dead relative’s check can also fill out a form or answer a phone call fraudulently.

mrktf 2y ago

In my county it is solved problem - we have social worker to come and meet person elderly person.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago

Being in the database does not imply recieving money. Even being in the database and not marked dead does not imply that. 98% of the records discussed in this document are not receiving money from the SSA and the vast majority that are recieving money, are simply people over the age of 100 which is a thing that happens sometimes when you have a population of 350 million.

acdha 2y ago

Basically it comes down to the cost of being wrong. If you decide that someone is dead and stop sending checks, you might learn otherwise when their congressional representatives or reporters start asking why you failed to perform your legally-mandated duties at great cost to the retiree. Mailing a check is a lot cheaper than getting in the hot seat because you cut off some disabled veteran’s rent. Older people often have disabilities or care situations which make contact less reliable, they’re more likely to use cash or have relatives do their shopping, etc. so you’re left with relatively slow or expensive options like paying people to visit in person (which has all kinds of problems around privacy and access - Social Security has a legal obligation to serve someone who lives abroad, on a reservation without paved roads, etc.) and any other kind of verification system won’t help with fraud since people collecting their dead relative’s check can also fill out a form or answer a phone call fraudulently.