Social Security Updates Millions of Records in Database Cleanup

The Social Security Administration says it has added death dates to 17 million records and updated citizenship information in about 25 million others as part of what it calls the largest cleanup of its Social Security number database in the agency’s 91-year history. Another 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status are still being corrected. The agency announced the changes on October 20, saying the records lacked death dates or citizenship details, or contained incorrect citizenship information. SSA said it has corrected nearly 15% of active Social Security numbers since the Trump administration began. It did not provide an exact count of distinct active numbers represented by that percentage. For the death-date updates, SSA said it used information from its own systems and the State Department. To fill missing citizenship fields, it used the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements service, known as SAVE. The agency said the additional 8.5 million records with inaccurate citizenship status remain under correction. SSA Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said the effort was intended to strengthen identity data used across...