Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act
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The Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act permanently requires the Social Security Administration to share death records with the Treasury Department's Do Not Pay system, and requires Treasury to help cover the cost of that state death data.
It also sets a stricter evidentiary standard before Social Security can record someone as deceased and requires notifying other agencies when an error wrongly marks someone as dead, aiming to reduce both improper payments and wrongful benefit cutoffs.
What this law does
What it does
The law amends the Social Security Act to make permanent the requirement that the Social Security Administration share death record data with the Do Not Pay working system, a Treasury Department database agencies use to screen federal payments for fraud and error. It requires the Social Security Administration and the agency operating Do Not Pay to enter into a cost-sharing agreement covering the proportional share of state death data costs, subject to periodic review. It also bars the Social Security Administration from recording someone as deceased unless it has "clear and convincing evidence" supporting that finding. Separately, if the agency later finds it wrongly recorded someone as deceased, it must notify any agency that had received the erroneous data through its cooperative arrangements, including Treasury and other federal or state benefit-paying agencies. The amendments take effect on a set future date rather than immediately upon enactment.
Key provisions
- 1Makes permanent the requirement that the Social Security Administration share death record information with the Do Not Pay working system to prevent and recover improper payments.
- 2Requires the Social Security Administration and the agency operating Do Not Pay to agree on a methodology covering the proportional share of state death data costs, reviewable periodically.
- 3Bars the Social Security Administration from recording an individual as deceased unless it has clear and convincing evidence the person should be presumed dead.
- 4Requires the Social Security Administration to notify agencies with cooperative data-sharing arrangements when it identifies an error that incorrectly recorded someone as deceased.
Who is affected
The Social Security Administration and the Treasury Department's Do Not Pay system are directly affected, as are federal and state agencies that disburse benefits and rely on death-record data to prevent improper payments. Individuals wrongly flagged as deceased, and beneficiaries whose payments could otherwise continue improperly after death, are also affected.
Why it matters
Making the data-sharing permanent closes a gap that previously required periodic reauthorization, helping agencies keep catching payments sent to deceased people. The stricter evidence standard and new notification requirement are meant to reduce cases where living people are mistakenly declared dead and lose access to benefits or services as a result.
What changed
Changes to existing law
Amends Social Security Act, Section 205(r) (42 U.S.C. 405(r)) (Sec. 2(a))
Replaces the temporary Do Not Pay data-sharing requirement with a permanent one and adds a cost-sharing agreement requirement and a clear-and-convincing-evidence standard for death determinations.
Amends Social Security Act, Section 205(r)(7) (42 U.S.C. 405(r)(7)) (Sec. 2(b))
Adds a requirement that the Social Security Administration notify agencies with data-sharing arrangements when it corrects an erroneous death record.
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- The amendments improving Do Not Pay coordination and the death-record evidence standard
How it works
The Social Security Administration and the agency operating the Do Not Pay system must negotiate and periodically review a cost-sharing methodology for state death data. Going forward, the Social Security Administration must document clear and convincing evidence before recording a death, and when it later corrects an erroneous death record, it must proactively notify every agency that received that data through an existing cooperative arrangement, including Treasury and other benefit-paying agencies, so downstream systems can be corrected.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Became Public Law No: 119-77.
Official CRS summary
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This act permanently allows the Department of the Treasury to access certain death records maintained by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to help prevent and recover improper payments (e.g., payments to deceased individuals). The act also establishes evidentiary requirements the SSA must meet before identifying an individual as deceased.
Current law requires the SSA to share its Death Master File with the Do Not Pay system maintained by Treasury for three years. The act makes this requirement permanent. Treasury must enter into an agreement with the SSA related to Treasury's share of the cost of state death data.
The act also prohibits the SSA from recording a death in the master file unless the SSA has clear and convincing evidence that the individual should be presumed deceased. If an individual is incorrectly identified as deceased and provides the SSA with supporting documentation, the SSA may notify certain agencies that have access to the master file, including Treasury and federal or state agencies that provide or disburse federally funded benefits.
Legislative subjects
Disability assistance; Intergovernmental relations; Social Welfare; Social security and elderly assistance