Social Security will shell out millions this year to people it knows are dead, The Washington Times reported Wednesday.
According to the news outlet, an Inspector General's audit found, although Social Security had clear evidence of death for 678 people, the system still cut $20 million in checks for them.
Worse yet, 53 of those people were identified in audits in 2009 and 2013 and were still getting benefits when the IG reviewed their cases last year.
"Our death processing system is decades old and needs modernizing," Stephanie Hall, deputy chief of staff at Social Security, told auditors, The Washington Times reported, adding the problems have diminished since Social Security updated its "death alert" system in 2014.
In the 2009 audit, investigators found about 6,000 people were still being paid despite some evidence they had died. By 2013, that number was down to less than 2,500.
In the new audit, the tally is 1,281, but over half — 678 — had death certificate numbers or other firm indicators they were deceased, The Washington Times reported.
In one extreme case, the audit found a man who died in September 2010 kept getting checks despite a 2013 "death alert" by Social Security. All told, he was paid more than $133,000 before the Inspector General's review finally cut him off in May 2017, according to the news outlet.
The case was referred for a criminal investigation into the person collecting the money, The Washington Times reported.
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