Social Security: Most Social Security Death Information Accurate But
Improvements Possible (Letter Report, 08/29/94, GAO/HEHS-94-211).
Nearly all the information based on reports of death that the Social
Security Administration (SSA) shares with other federal agencies is
accurate. The accuracy of this information, which is provided to such
agencies as the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Labor, is
essential to prevent or identify millions of dollars in overpayments by
federal agencies to deceased persons and to avoid the erroneous
termination of benefits. Fewer than one percent of the nearly 350,000
recorded deaths GAO reviewed were inaccurate. SSA can make its
information more useful by taking action in four areas: the handling of
cases erroneously terminated, processing of rejected death reports,
providing information on nonbeneficiaries, and using feedback based on
agency investigations of deaths.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: HEHS-94-211
TITLE: Social Security: Most Social Security Death Information
Accurate But Improvements Possible
DATE: 08/29/94
SUBJECT: Information gathering operations
Vital records
Beneficiaries
Interagency relations
Social security benefits
Reporting requirements
Information dissemination operations
Records management
Data integrity
Employee survivors benefits
IDENTIFIER: SSA Master Beneficiary Record
Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program
Social Security Program
Supplemental Security Income Program
SSA Death Alert Control and Update System
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Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on Ways
and Means, House of Representatives
August 1994
SOCIAL SECURITY - MOST SOCIAL
SECURITY DEATH INFORMATION
ACCURATE BUT IMPROVEMENTS POSSIBLE
GAO/HEHS-94-211
SSA's Death Information
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
DACUS - Death Alert Control and Update System
HHS - Department of Health and Human Services
IG - Inspector General
MBR - Master Beneficiary Record
OMB - Office of Management and Budget
SSA - Social Security Administration
SSN - Social Security number
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-255010
August 29, 1994
The Honorable J.J. Pickle
Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight
Committee on Ways and Means
House of Representatives
Dear Mr. Chairman:
On August 5, 1993, your office asked that we assess the reliability
of the information on deceased persons that the Social Security
Administration (SSA) routinely shares with other federal agencies.
Since 1992, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has required\1
federal agencies, such as the Departments of Defense, Veterans
Affairs, and Labor, to use SSA's comprehensive file of such
information for terminating benefit payments to deceased persons'
accounts. The accuracy of this information is essential to (1)
prevent or identify millions of dollars in overpayments by federal
agencies to deceased persons and (2) avoid the erroneous termination
of benefits.
This report is a continuation of the work we have been doing for your
Subcommittee concerning erroneous payments made by a variety of
programs to deceased persons. In this particular case, you were
concerned that errors in the accuracy of SSA's death information
could limit the usefulness of the information as a means for
terminating benefits paid by other federal and federally assisted
programs.
--------------------
\1 OMB Bulletin Number 92-04 (Jan. 15, 1992), requires all federal
and federally assisted programs to use SSA death information on a
regular basis to detect erroneous payments and remove deceased
beneficiaries from the payment rolls.
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
SSA pays more than $300 billion to over 47 million beneficiaries
annually. To control its payments, SSA maintains the most
comprehensive file of death information in the federal government,
and probably the nation. SSA obtains death information from
voluntary sources such as family and friends of deceased
beneficiaries as well as from funeral homes. To supplement these
death reports, SSA purchases death certificate information from state
governments. SSA uses this information to effectively administer its
program through the prompt termination of benefits to deceased
beneficiaries.
The death file is SSA's official file of death information. It
contains information on all persons issued a social security number
and includes information on all deaths reported to SSA for
beneficiaries as well as nonbeneficiaries (that is, nonparticipants
in the Social Security program). This information is shared with
other state and federal programs to prevent erroneous payments to
deceased persons. The Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) contains
payment and other background information on current title II
(Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) beneficiaries and
is used to administer its own program.
In response to recommendations in our February 1991 report,\2 OMB
required that, beginning in March 1992, federal and federally
assisted programs match SSA's death information against their payment
files on a monthly basis to more quickly remove deceased
beneficiaries from their roles and reclaim overpayments. OMB
requires agencies to verify deaths before terminating benefits.
This is the fourth in a series of reports concerning the use of SSA's
death information to prevent payments by federal and state agencies
to deceased beneficiaries. This report addresses the accuracy of
death information maintained by SSA and shared with other federal
agencies. Previous reports have addressed
the need for SSA death information by other federal agencies to
detect unreported beneficiary deaths,\3
improvements needed in the reporting and processing of death
information to and by SSA,\4 and
the use of SSA death information by other federal agencies.\5
--------------------
\2 Federal Benefit Payments: Agencies Need Death Information From
Social Security to Avoid Erroneous Payments (GAO/HRD-91-3, Feb. 6,
1991).
\3 Federal Benefit Payments (GAO/HRD-91-3, Feb. 6, 1991).
\4 Social Security: Reporting and Processing of Death Information
Should Be Improved (GAO/HRD-92-88, Sept. 4, 1992).
\5 Status of Agency Use of SSA Death Information (GAO/HRD-93-31R July
20, 1993).
RESULTS IN BRIEF
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
Nearly all the information based on reports of death that SSA shares
with other federal agencies is accurate. We sampled reports of death
for title II (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance)
beneficiaries, the largest SSA program, and found that fewer than 1
percent of the nearly 365,000 recorded deaths we reviewed were
inaccurate.
SSA can make its information more useful by taking action in four
areas: the handling of cases erroneously terminated, processing of
rejected death reports, providing information on nonbeneficiaries,
and using feedback based on agency investigations of deaths.
Beneficiaries are sometimes removed from the rolls because of death
reports that are later proven to be incorrect. While SSA restores
their benefits when it determines that these beneficiaries are alive,
in many cases the death file is not corrected. SSA can improve the
overall accuracy of its death file by updating it when reports of
death are determined to be erroneous.
Numerous death reports are rejected from processing by SSA's
computers and, consequently, are not automatically updated to SSA's
death file because they do not match sex, name, or date-of-birth
information that is currently contained in its files. Death file
information would be more complete if SSA improved its ability to
correctly identify and record a greater number of these death
reports.
SSA does not verify deaths for nonbeneficiaries. Consequently, other
federal agencies using SSA death information for persons not
receiving Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits
may be using incorrect information.
Feedback from agencies that have independently verified SSA's reports
of death would be useful in correcting erroneous information in SSA's
death file. Although all agencies are required by OMB to provide SSA
with death information, the instructions are not clear with respect
to the specific type of information that is required and how
frequently it is to be provided. Further, SSA is currently not
capable of processing death information from other agencies when it
is submitted.
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
To assess the accuracy of SSA's death file information, we used
computer matching and other analytical techniques. SSA's death file,
as of December 1992, was matched against its MBR file, which we
consider to be the most accurate and up to date source of beneficiary
information.
Officials at four selected agencies--the Departments of Labor,
Defense, and Veterans Affairs, and the Office of Personnel
Management--were interviewed to determine their procedures for
processing and verifying death information. We also interviewed
officials at the Department of the Treasury and OMB to discuss
current reporting requirements for all federal agencies that use SSA
death information. (See app. I for a more detailed discussion of
our review's scope and methodology.)
MOST SSA DEATH FILE INFORMATION
IS ACCURATE
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
Our match of SSA's death file information with SSA's MBR showed that
the death information SSA shares with other federal agencies is
highly accurate for those people who had been receiving title II
Social Security benefits. From the almost 48 million records in this
file,\6 we took a 1- percent random projectable sample (480,000
cases) and matched this death information against SSA's MBR file to
determine if the death file had been correctly updated to reflect the
individuals' current payment status.
We obtained matches for about 365,000 (76 percent) of the 480,000
cases. Our match of SSA's death file found that fewer than 1 percent
of these cases were inaccurate when compared with its payment file,
the MBR. Because this is a projectable sample, about 34,000 of the
36,500,000 title II beneficiaries listed as deceased in the death
file may be alive.
We could not obtain match results for 24 percent of the sample cases.
Some of these were nonbeneficiaries and had no verification of the
death report by SSA. Consequently, these cases could have a higher
incidence of error than the sample cases we checked. The others
represent title XVI Supplemental Security Income cases. Because
title XVI beneficiaries' deaths are generally confirmed by SSA in a
manner similar to title II cases, we assume that these cases would
have a low incidence of error, similar to the title II cases in our
sample.
--------------------
\6 Over 2.1 million people die annually in the United States; 1.8
million are SSA beneficiaries. All reported deaths are routinely
added to SSA's death file.
PROBLEMS REMAIN IN THE DEATH
FILE
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
While most information in SSA's death file is accurate, the file has
a few types of problems. One involves erroneous terminations. These
are cases where a beneficiary is removed from the benefit roles
because of a report of death that is later proven to be incorrect.
When SSA becomes aware that the beneficiary is in fact alive, it
restores the beneficiary's benefits and corrects the payment record,
but in many cases the death file is not corrected. Therefore, the
individual would still be listed as dead on the death file given to
other agencies for use in enforcing their programs. SSA officials
stated that as a result of our work instructions for processing these
cases are being changed to emphasize correction of the death file to
improve its accuracy.
SSA's Death Alert Control and Update System (DACUS) controls the
processing of death information from the point a death is reported
until the MBR is updated with the benefit termination and the death
file is ultimately updated with the death. In many cases, however,
incoming death data are rejected at various points in the processing,
causing two types of problems. First, in some cases the incoming
death reports are missing needed identifying information such as date
of death or contain invalid information such as an incorrect Social
Security number (SSN). In these cases, DACUS will not allow a
benefit termination and consequently no change can be made to either
the MBR or the death file. Second, there are cases where death
reports contain information that matches the name, sex, and date of
birth contained in the MBR but not the information in the death file.
This results when there is a mismatch of these data elements between
the two files. Consequently, the MBR is updated but the death file
cannot be updated. By reducing the number of rejected death reports,
SSA would improve the likelihood that it will record these deaths in
the death file and increase the overall accuracy of information it
routinely shares with other agencies.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General
(IG) reported on these problems in 1992.\7 The IG recommended that to
reduce overall processing rejections, payment files such as SSA's
name file be matched with rejected death reports to help identify the
correct SSNs for these reports. This would allow additional deaths
to be processed and recorded on the death file. In discussions with
SSA officials, they acknowledged that this is a problem due to the
process for updating deaths in the current system and that corrective
measures recommended in the IG report should help address the
problem. SSA officials stated that major system upgrades are planned
that, when implemented later this year, will address the processing
rejection problem.
Another problem with SSA's death file results from the fact that SSA
does not verify reports of death for nonbeneficiaries. If multiple
reports are received for nonbeneficiaries, such as from family
members and from state bureaus of vital statistics, the earliest date
of death will be recorded without being verified. Because
nonbeneficiary death reports are not verified, any erroneous reports
are not detected and corrected by SSA. Consequently, erroneous
information about the date of death or fact of death would be
subsequently shared with other agencies. Users of SSA's death data
should be made aware that death reports for nonbeneficiaries have an
increased potential for error.
--------------------
\7 The Social Security Administration Needs to Improve Procedures in
the Death Match Operation, HHS Inspector General (A-13-90-00046, Feb.
7, 1992).
INPUT FROM AGENCIES
INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING DEATH
FILE INFORMATION WOULD INCREASE
ACCURACY OF SSA DATABASE
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :6
Information derived from results of the independent verifications
would be useful to SSA in correcting erroneous information for both
beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries in its death file. Agencies that
must use SSA's death information are also required by OMB to
independently verify these deaths before termination of benefits.
For example, this may include attempting telephone contact, signature
verification, or personal contacts with the beneficiary.
We reviewed 70 death cases in which several federal agencies had
investigated the death information supplied by SSA and determined
that, contrary to their reported status in SSA records, they were
alive. We matched these cases against SSA's payment and other data
files to determine their current payment status. The MBR and other
payment records showed that for the 70 cases, 52 were alive and only
1 was deceased. In 5 cases, the SSN indicated that another person,
possibly a family member of the beneficiary, was deceased. The
remaining 12 cases were not SSA beneficiaries. SSA does not maintain
nonbeneficiary data, which would allow us to determine if they were
alive or deceased. These results indicate that providing SSA
feedback derived from the results of agency investigations would be
useful in correcting SSA's death file for future sharing with other
state and federal agencies.
OMB requires all agencies to provide SSA with death information. The
instructions are not clear with respect to what is specifically
required. They do not indicate the frequency and type of information
that is to be reported, such as feedback derived from investigations.
Without specific requirements, agencies are not now providing
feedback so that SSA can improve the accuracy of its death database.
While some death information is received from the Department of
Veterans Affairs and the Railroad Retirement Board, SSA officials
reported that the information is not derived from the results of
these agencies' death investigations but from voluntary reports of
death to these agencies. Further, they said that SSA's current
system is not capable of processing and updating information to the
death file from other agencies if the information was reported to
SSA.
RECOMMENDATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :7
To maintain the most accurate death information possible we recommend
that the SSA Commissioner
update the death file for cases that are found to be erroneously
terminated and modify SSA's requirements for processing death
reports to reduce the number of rejected reports and
establish a system to (1) process feedback received from other
federal agencies on erroneous SSA death information and (2)
correct erroneous information in order to increase the accuracy
of SSA's death file.
In addition, we recommend that the SSA Commissioner inform other
agencies that death reports received by SSA for nonbeneficiaries have
not been verified and, thus, may have an increased chance of error.
We recommend that the Director, Office of Management and Budget
clarify the requirements for agencies in OMB Circular 92-04 for
providing feedback to SSA derived from their investigations of death
reports.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :7.1
As agreed with your office, we did not obtain written agency comments
on this report. We are sending copies of this report to appropriate
congressional committees, the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget; the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration;
the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and other interested
parties.
Please contact me on (202) 512-7215 if you have any questions about
this report. Other major contributors are listed in appendix II.
Sincerely yours,
Jane L. Ross
Associate Director
Income Security Issues
SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
=========================================================== Appendix I
We used computer matching and analysis techniques to assess the
accuracy of SSA's shared file of death information. To do so, we
obtained SSA's master death file as of December 1992. The death file
contains information on all deaths reported to SSA. This file
contains voluntarily reported death information as well as state
death information, the sharing of which is restricted by some
states.\8 We matched this death information against SSA's MBR file to
determine the accuracy of the death file. The MBR is a database of
all current title II (Retirement, Survivors, and Disability
Insurance) beneficiaries and contains current payment information.
The title II program represents about 88 percent of all SSA
beneficiaries. We did not perform a separate match of title XVI
Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries given the similarity in
processing procedures with title II cases.
Deaths recorded in the MBR are generally independently confirmed by
SSA. SSA verifies any discrepancies in death data received from
various sources. In addition, agency officials told us that current
beneficiaries who are erroneously terminated report the error to SSA
immediately to have their benefits restored. This results in the MBR
being updated in a timely manner, thus making it the most accurate
and up to date source of beneficiary information. Death information
may then be updated to the death file if it meets specific criteria
such as matching sex, name, or date-of-birth information. We were
not able to verify the accuracy of death records for
nonbeneficiaries. We also interviewed officials at SSA headquarters
to discuss accuracy problems with the death file, coordinate our
sampling procedures among various SSA groups, and assist us in
analyzing our sample results.
We interviewed officials at four selected agencies--the Departments
of Labor, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, and the Office of Personnel
Management--to determine their procedures for processing and
verifying SSA death information. These are among the largest
agencies using SSA death data and were the subject of previous GAO
reviews. We also interviewed officials at the Department of Treasury
and OMB to discuss current reporting information.
Finally, to assess the usefulness of agency feedback, we matched a
sample of SSA death cases that other agencies found in their
investigations to be incorrect. We compared the sample with SSA's
MBR and other payment files that give background information on cases
to determine their current payment status. We did this to determine
the level of agreement between agency determinations and SSA payment
records. Our review was conducted from August 1993 through May 1994
in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
--------------------
\8 SSA is restricted by 25 states from releasing certain death data
to other federal agencies. This may change in August 1994, when
provisions of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 that
prohibit disclosure of federal tax data to any state that restricts
use of its death information generally become effective.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS REPORT
========================================================== Appendix II
Roland H. Miller III, Assistant Director, (410-965-8925)
Jeff Bernstein, Evaluator-in-Charge
Robert T. Rosensteel
William F. Schmanke
Wayne J. Turowski