8.5 million SSNs had inaccurate citizenship in 50 million SSN cleanup

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Baltimore, MD—The Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced substantial progress in its ongoing effort to strengthen the accuracy and integrity of the Social Security Number (SSN) database. This work represents the most comprehensive SSN record clean-up in the agency’s 91-year history.

“The Social Security Number database is our country’s books and records. The database’s accuracy is essential to maintaining integrity of government services for citizens. Accurate SSN records prevent fraud across federal programs and support the proper administration of benefits,” said Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano. “This is the first time SSA has undertaken an effort of this scale, and I am proud of the work we have done to strengthen the foundation of identity data relied upon throughout government and the economy.”

Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, SSA has corrected nearly 15 percent of all active SSNs across approximately 330 million U.S. citizens and nearly 390 million total records. SSA records are referenced by agencies across the federal government and in states to validate identities and prevent improper payments of taxpayer dollars. These improvements demonstrate a government-wide commitment to safeguarding identity data, preventing fraud, and preserving proper program administration.

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As part of this effort:

SSA has added 17 million dates of death to records that previously lacked this information, using a combination of internal SSA systems and Department of State data.

Through data received from the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) service, SSA has updated approximately 25 million records that previously had missing citizenship information.

SSA is currently in the process of correcting an additional 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status.

The agency has implemented stronger internal controls to prevent inaccuracies due to manual data entry from occurring in the future.

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