Congress Passes Bill to Permanently Stop $1.3 Billion in Social Security Payments to Deceased...

Imagine discovering your bank has been depositing money into your late neighbor’s account for years—not by accident, but because nobody bothered to check whether he was still breathing. Now multiply that by a few million, and you’ll start to understand what’s been happening inside the federal government. The Social Security Administration processes millions of payments, manages countless records, and serves as a lifeline for retirees who earned every cent they receive.
Part of that operation includes something called the Death Master File—a database maintained by the SSA containing the names of deceased Americans. When someone passes away, their state reports it, and that name goes on the list. Simple enough. But here’s where things get interesting: for years, the SSA kept that list to itself. Other federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, had no access to it.