Are dead people really getting Social Security or is that a myth?

Social Security tends to be the subject of rumors. You might read on the internet that the program is going bankrupt, or that it’s stealing money from the government or vice versa.

Another big rumor that circulated earlier this year had the program supposedly paying tens of millions of dollars to dead people. President Trump and Elon Musk put out social media posts in support of that claim earlier this year after a deep dive into Social Security’s finances unveiled some questionable data.

Now, a Reddit poster wants to know if the rumors about Social Security paying benefits to dead people are true. Here’s the scoop.

Social Security isn’t just throwing away money

It’s fair to say that sending benefits to dead people is a waste, and that Social Security should be conserving all of the funds it can right now seeing as how the program is facing benefit cuts. But the rumors about Social Security paying dead people are just that — rumors.

Social Security, not so surprisingly, uses a pretty outdated software system to track data. What this means is that people who don’t have a correct birth date on file have their records default to a data point that puts their age at well over 150.

This doesn’t mean people in this boat are dead or getting benefits they shouldn’t. It just means there’s a flaw in the reporting system, and that until that software is updated, wonky information is likely to appear.

Of course, this begs the question: Why doesn’t Social Security upgrade its software?

But it’s not so simple. A job like that requires money and manpower, and the agency’s resources are limited.

Remember, Social Security is trying hard to stave off benefit cuts. It has to be very careful in how it spends the money it has.

Social Security isn’t perfect, but it’s trying to recoup lost funds

Even though Social Security is not sending regular checks out to dead people, it has overpaid benefits in the past. Now, Social Security is looking to recoup those payments. It can do so by withholding future benefits from seniors until it gets its money back.

However, current rules dictate that Social Security can only recover overpaid benefits by withholding up to 50% of future payments. If a given senior is entitled to $2,000 per month in Social Security, that check can’t be whittled down to $0, but it can be reduced to $1,000.

Social Security definitely needs to clean up its act with regard to improper payments, and its computer systems are in sore need of an overhaul. With any luck, the agency will make these items a priority in the coming years if funding allows so it can run more smoothly.

For now, though, rest assured that Social Security is not throwing money away carelessly by sending checks to people who aren’t alive. This isn’t to say that that’s never happened. But it’s not something Social Security does regularly like you may have been told.

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