Social Security Corrects 15% of Active SSNs in Largest Cleanup in 91 Years

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced Tuesday that it has corrected records for nearly 15% of all active Social Security numbers (SSN), adding missing death and citizenship data as part of the Trump administration’s drive to curb benefits fraud. The agency called it the most comprehensive cleanup of the Social Security Number database in its 91-year history. The corrections touched roughly 330 million U.S. citizens and nearly 390 million total records. SSA laid out the figures in a statement released Tuesday. Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano cast the database as foundational to the federal government. “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,” Bisignano said. “This is the first time SSA has undertaken an effort of this scale.” The agency said it added 17 million dates of death to records that previously lacked them, drawing on internal SSA systems and Department of State data. It updated about 25 million records with missing citizenship information using the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, service. Another 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status are still being corrected, the commissioner said. SSA added that it has put stronger internal controls in place to prevent manual-entry errors going forward. Reuters, which reported the figures Tuesday, noted that the agency administers benefits for tens of millions of older Americans and people with disabilities. President Donald Trump vowed to attack fraud and waste in the system after returning to office. Bisignano, who also leads the IRS, has described the work as reconciling the agency’s Numident master file. Records once showed numberholders who appeared to be “150 or 160 years old,” he said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun, adding that such entries “create vulnerabilities.” The cleanup follows the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) move in March 2025 to mark roughly 3.2 million numberholders aged 120 and older as deceased. Democrats have challenged the administration’s handling of the death files. A former SSA employee told Congress the agency was pressured to assign death dates to living people, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote Bisignano demanding answers. SSA denied adding 2.7 million names to its Death Master File. A federal judge separately blocked the administration’s SAVE citizenship database earlier this year.