The Social Security Administration says it has fixed records tied to nearly 15 percent of all active Social Security numbers, adding millions of missing death dates and citizenship entries to the database.
The agency announced the figures Tuesday in a news release from its Baltimore headquarters. It called the work the largest cleanup of Social Security number records in its 91-year history. Breitbart News also reported the announcement.
What the agency changed
- Death dates: About 17 million dates of death were added to records that had none. The agency used its own systems and State Department data.
- Citizenship: About 25 million records missing citizenship information were updated with data from the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE verification service.
- Still in progress: Another 8.5 million records with wrong citizenship status are being corrected.
- New controls: The agency says it added stronger internal checks to stop errors from manual data entry.
Why it matters
Federal and state agencies check Social Security records to confirm identities and block improper payments. The agency said the corrections cover a database of about 330 million U.S. citizens and nearly 390 million total records, and the work dates to the start of the Trump administration.
“The Social Security Number database is our country’s books and records,” Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said in the release. He said accurate records “prevent fraud across federal programs and support the proper administration of benefits.”
The release did not say how many of the corrected records were tied to improper payments or fraud, or how much money the cleanup might save.
Past disputes
The work follows a March 2025 move by the Department of Government Efficiency to mark about 3.2 million number holders age 120 and older as deceased, Breitbart reported. Democratic senators have questioned how the agency handles its death records, and the agency has denied adding 2.7 million names to its Death Master File, according to Breitbart.
Beneficiaries who think their own record is wrong can contact the agency at ssa.gov or a local Social Security office. iSEARK.com reported on next year’s benefit increase in this story.
Sources: Social Security Administration release; Breitbart News.
.jpg){kind=link}