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Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Hearing
Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Carper, and Members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting me to discuss the death information we collect and maintain for Social Security purposes and how we share this information with other government agencies. I am Sean Brune, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance, Quality and Management. We strongly support the Federal government’s effort to combat fraud and curb improper payments. Program integrity and the stewardship of trust fund and tax dollars have long been a cornerstone of SSA’s mission. The death information we collect serves us well and prevents around $50 million each month from becoming improper payments. Further, of the around 2.8 million new death reports we add to our records each year, less than half of one percent–just 0.35 percent–are erroneous.
Today, I would like to explain how we obtain death information and how we use it to prevent improper payments in our programs. I would also like to describe how and why we share death information with government and private entities. Read More…
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