Trump's latest Social Security move is chilling

Adding immigrants to the "master death file" amounts to weaponization of critical data.

“I see dead people.”

In the world of funhouse mirrors that is the Trump administration, it’s difficult to keep straight what exactly we should be worried about when it comes to Social Security and dead people.

First, it was millions of 150-year-olds receiving benefits despite (presumably) having died (false). Now, the administration has taken the unprecedented step of adding the names of living persons to what’s known as the SSA Death Master File. The DMF is the most authoritative record of deaths in the U.S. - the agency uses it to stop paying benefits, but it also is widely used “by government agencies, employers, banks and landlords to check the status of employees, residents, clients and others,” notes the Washington Post.

Earlier this month, the names of more than 6,300 migrants whose legal status had been revoked were added to the DMF, according to the New York Times:

The initial names are limited to people the administration says are convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists,” the documents show. But officials said the effort could broaden to include others in the country without authorization.

Their “financial lives,” Leland Dudek, the Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, wrote in an email to staff members, would be “terminated.”

These cases involved Social Security numbers that were issued legally, and it has nothing to do with improper benefit payments, as we’ll see below. The goal here is to cut these people off from using financial services in the U.S., encouraging them to “self-deport.” In other words, it’s weaponization of the Social Security system in service of the administration’s goals on immigration.

Why do people with varying degrees of legal status in the U.S. have Social Security numbers? This brief from the Brookings Institution explains:

Though undocumented immigrants typically do not have a valid SSN, immigrants without permanent legal status are sometimes eligible to obtain one. For example, asylum seekers with a pending asylum case and those in the U.S. on temporary humanitarian parole programs can apply for SSNs and work authorization. Similarly, immigrants on a temporary work visa and international students can qualify in some circumstances. Workers without permanent residence contribute into the program, but since many do not end up working long enough to qualify for benefits, these contributions improve solvency for current and future retirees. If an immigrant with a valid SSN loses work authorization and then is later able to readjust their status, they typically maintain the SSN and sometimes use their tax contributions as evidence of their good character.

The Washington Post explains that adding these 6,300 names to the DMF is illegal, and that it occured after a fierce battle between the administration and long-time SSA management:

Experts in government, consumer rights and immigration law said the administration’s action is illegal. Labeling people dead strips them of the privacy protections granted to living individuals — and knowingly classifying living people as dead counts as falsifying government records, they said. This is in addition to the harm inflicted on those suddenly declared dead, who become unable to legally earn a living wage or draw benefits they may be eligible for. Social Security itself has acknowledged that an incorrect death declaration is a “devastating” blow.

“This is an unprecedented step,” said Devin O’Connor, a senior fellow on the federal fiscal policy team for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. “The administration seems to basically be saying they have the right to essentially declare people equivalent to dead who have not died. That’s a hard concept to believe, but it brings enormous risks and consequences.”

So far, this is part of the administration’s crackdown on immigration. But experts worry that it will expand, and that comes with enormous risks to individuals - and it also puts at risk the integrity of Social Security data and the program’s solvency. According to the Times, the administration is considering expanding this practice to “others in the country without authorization.”

This is a chilling development that threatens the integrity of Social Security, as well as its solvency. Here’s why.

Integrity: Adding the names of living people to the DMF heightens the risk of erroneously canceling the financial lives of living people - and worse, the weaponization of sensitive Social Security data to target people the administration doesn’t like. The latter is part of a broader pattern that appears to also include weaponizing the Internal Revenue Service - witness Trump’s request that the IRS revoke the non-profit status of Harvard University for its refusal to accept his demands to revamp its hiring and admissions practices and curriculum.

Solvency: The MAGA claim that undocumented workers weaken the program’s financial health by drawing benefits improperly is not only false - the opposite actually is true. Undocumented workers with Social Security numbers make payroll tax contributions, but they are ineligible to draw benefits. They contributed $25 billion to Social Security in 2022, according to one estimate, and they are unlikely to benefit from the program in old age unless their legal status changes.

More generally, it’s important to remember that an expanded workforce of younger people would improve Social Security’s solvency. You’ve heard over and over again that one of the program’s financial challenges is the declining ratio of workers to retirees? That’s due mainly to declining U.S. birth rates. Expanding legal immigration can offset that problem, especially because immigrants tend to be working age. In fact, one centrist proposal to address Social Security’s trust fund exhaustion published by Brookings calls for an increase in legal immigration.

What happens when the name of a living person is erroneously added to the DMF? First, it’s worth knowing that this error is very rare. According to the SSA, more than three million deaths are reported to the agency annually. The information comes from funeral homes, hospitals, financial institutions, state governments and family members. And less than one-third of one percent of reported deaths are erroneous and require correction.

When it does happen, however, your life can become a financial living hell. Check out this National Public Radio interview with a woman who was erroneously declared dead by the SSA.

If this should happen to you (and, again, the odds of that happening at this moment are extremely low), contact your local Social Security office as soon as possible:

They should be prepared to bring at least one piece of current (not expired) original form of identification. Social Security takes immediate action to correct its records and the agency can provide a letter that the error has been corrected that can be shared with other organizations, agencies, and employers.

Getting in to see someone in that office may be tough, considering the staff cutbacks and chaos at the agency, but that’s another story.

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