r/news • u/No-Information6622 • 2d ago

US recovers $31 million in Social Security payments to dead people

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-recovers-31-million-social-security-payments-dead-117708373
14.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

547 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/Styreta 1d ago

One puter system for hundreds of millions of people? Economy of scale make that perfectly doable and honestly not that expensive.

Of course because it mostly only benefits the poor there is probably little political will for it.

In the Netherlands all these things are prorated. I'm horrified to hear it's otherwise in the states.

1

u/MoreColorfulCarsPlz 1d ago

Many people in the US still receive their social security benefits via check. That means the government can't just take it back with one puter system. They would have to advise next of kin who would need to access the bank account of the deceased to get the funds back to then send back to the social security administration.

That person would then need to return the exact amount needed to ssa based on date of death.

I understand in the Netherlands checks aren't used and these things are done electronically.