The question of how many “dead people” collect Social Security has been a topic of recent discussion, often exaggerated or misunderstood. Based on the most current and reliable data, the number of deceased individuals actually receiving Social Security benefits is far smaller than some claims suggest.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) maintains a database called the Numident, which tracks all Social Security numbers (SSNs) ever issued—over 500 million since the program began. A 2023 SSA Inspector General report found that approximately 18.9 million SSNs tied to individuals born in 1920 or earlier (making them 100 or older by 2020) lacked a recorded date of death. While this might suggest millions of “dead people” are still listed as alive in the system, the vast majority of these individuals are not receiving benefits. The same report concluded that only about 44,000 of these centenarians were still receiving payments as of December 2020, a number described as “almost none” relative to the 18.9 million. This aligns with the fact that only around 89,000 people aged 99 or older were receiving benefits in December 2024, according to SSA statistics.
Further, the SSA has safeguards in place to prevent payments to the deceased. Since 2015, the agency automatically terminates benefits for anyone listed as over 115 years old unless proof of life is provided. Improper payments do occur—estimated at $71.8 billion from 2015 to 2022, or less than 1% of the $8.6 trillion paid out during that period—but most of these are overpayments to living beneficiaries due to errors, not payments to the dead. The U.S. Treasury’s efforts to recover improper payments, including $31 million clawed back in early 2025 from various federal programs (not just Social Security), suggest the issue is being addressed, though it’s a small fraction of total disbursements.
Claims of “tens of millions” of dead people collecting benefits, as made by some public figures, misrepresent the data. The 20 million-plus figure often cited reflects SSNs without death records, not active benefit recipients. In 2024, the SSA reported a total of 68.4 million beneficiaries, with only about 67,000 (0.1%) over age 100. The number of truly deceased individuals still receiving checks is likely in the thousands at most, not millions, based on audit findings and expert analyses.
In short, while the SSA’s records include millions of likely deceased individuals due to outdated or incomplete death data, only a tiny fraction—potentially a few thousand—receive improper payments. The system isn’t perfect, but it’s not hemorrhaging funds to “dead people” on the scale some suggest.
