I got this copied below from Fox News, just to end the source argument before it starts. 99% of those 6.5 million files are people who are deceased, and the numbers are inactive, nobody is using them. They just haven't been officially closed, which is unacceptable, but not costing the system untold millions. Some people (70,000 of them, not 6.5 million) have been using deceased SSN's to report wages and earnings, not to claim benefits, though they probably have it in mind to do so one day. There are 266 cases of people claiming benfits fraudulently. That's too many, but it's a far cry from the hysterical 6.5 million. In a gargantuan system like SS, there are always going to be some cases of fraud, no matter who is in the White House.
You can't pin this on Obama, that's my point.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03 ... ld-and-up/"In September 2013, a New York resident, believed to be the world's oldest living man, died at age 112," the OIG said in a report released last week. "According to the Gerontology Research Group, as of October 2013, only 35 known living individuals worldwide had reached age 112."
"We matched the 6.5 million SSNs against SSA's [Earnings Suspense File] ESF and E-Verify systems and identified thousands of instances of potential identity theft or other fraud," they said.
Nearly 70,000 of those SSNs were used to report $3.1 billion in wages between 2006 and 2011.
"One SSN appeared on 613 different suspended wage reports, and 194 additional SSNs appeared on at least 50 suspended wage reports that SSA received during this 6-year period," the OIG said. "Individuals can commit various types of fraud against the government by reporting earnings under deceased individuals' SSNs."
As of September 2014, the SSA was still issuing benefit payments to 266 people who were using a SSN that said they were born before June 16, 1901.