By Leada Gore
al.com
(TNS)
The Social Security Administration said it’s making “substantial” progress in the largest data cleanup in the agency’s 91-year history.
In a statement, SSA said it has corrected nearly 15% of all active Social Security numbers, spanning roughly 330 million U.S. citizens and nearly 390 million total records.
“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. Accurate SSN records prevent fraud across federal programs and support the proper administration of benefits,” Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in a statement.
This is the first time SSA has undertaken an effort of this scale, Bisignano added.
“I am proud of the work we have done to strengthen the foundation of identity data relied upon throughout government and the economy,” he said, adding the corrections help prevent identity theft and fraud.
Recommended Articles
What changed?
Among the changes announced by SSA were:
- Added 17 million dates of death to records that previously lacked the information. The information was gathered from internal SSA systems and Department of State data.
- Updated approximately 25 million records that were missing citizenship information. This data was obtained through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) service.
- SSA is currently in the processing of correcting an additional 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status.
The agency has also introduced stronger controls to prevent errors caused by manual data entry, it said.
Photo caption: Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano (Social Security Administration/Facebook)
_______
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit al.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Sign in to get access to this free resource, and all of our whitepapers and reports.
Download this content today!
Register Now Already registered? Click here to Log In
