mr. brune: thank you senator johnson. senator carper members of the committee. i am sean brune senior advisor of finance management at the social security administration. my remark also focus on the accuracy and how we collect that information. to timely stop paying social security beneficiaries who have died and to begin paying benefits to survivors. each year we post about 2.8 million death reports from family members, funeral homes and states. this information serves us well sprepting about $50 million in improper payments each month. over the years we have improved our process and this information is highly accurate. of the millionors reports we receive yearly they are still corrected. since 2002 we have worked with states to increase electronic. identify the name of a deceased individual before they issue or transmit a report of death to us. thus that information reported through e.d.v. the most accurate possible. currently 37 states, the city of new york and the districtor colombia report

and i'll start with mr. brune. prior to coming here today did you take a look at miss river's case to find out what the status is of her current status? >> senator the news media did not share the case with us beforehand. i did know that miss rivers was testifying today. i did not look at the specifics of her case. i think it would be unwise to discuss that in an open forum but i would like to be -- happy to be discuss that -- >> fair enough. how many people are you aware of that are in miss rivers position. >> fewer than 9,000 a year have that circumstance happen to them. usually, senator, we learn of the kurns -- kurns by the individual reporting it directly to us and we advise the individual that we can correct that if they visit our office. as we request that an individual bring proofs of identity with them including state-issued form of identity a birth certificate if they have one, so that we can correct the record and when the individual leaves our office we issue them a letter indicating that there was an e

. >> thank you mr. brune. our next witness is patrick o'carol, jr., inspector general for the social security administration since 2004. mr. o'carroll has 26 yours of service for the united states secret service. mr. peril. >> good afternoon, chairman johnson, ranking member carper and members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to par tis mitt inning this discussion. my office investigates hundreds of social security misuse every year but recently one incident out from the rest. a man opened two bank accounts with social security numbers that belongs to people northern 1886 and 199 -- 1893. we can safely assume these people who today would be 129 and 122 years of age, are deceased. however, according to ssas databases of social security number holders these people are alive ssa does not have dates of person for eperson or holder records. our audit fors found out these two record were anything but unique. re reported 6.5 million people whose social security records indicate they are over 112 years o

i think the death reports are highly contract and i would agree with mr. brune that that is prudent. and they look at their other verification processes and perhaps move resources over to their air others. and i go again to verification of family members and funeral homes. we looked at corrections, and we pulled a small case sample, and in 35% -- >> what percent? >> 35% were erroneously placed in the file. and if when you look at the source of those reports, family members and funeral directors. and those are typically regarded to be highly accurate. if you free up resources perhaps you can look at other policies and maybe to additional verifications. >> okay. how about sharing something with us. >> if i could look at a higher level of the overall improper payments estimate, there was three drivers of the increase of 19 billion. and it was medicaid, pay for service, medicaid and the earned income tax program. when you look at those individually medicare was only 3 billion. and earned nm was a little over 3 brl as well. you look at those and you have 65% of your

i would agree with mr. brune that's prudent and it would allow them to look at other verification processes that perhaps moves resources to those other areas and i go again to verification of family members and funeral homes. we look at some data of 82 corrections in 2012 and 13 and we pulled a small case sample 46 cases. 35% of those cases, those folks were in fact alive but -- >> what%? >> 35% of the 45 pieces we looked at. they were erroneously placed in the file. when you look to the source of those reports it was family members and those are typically regarded as being highly accurate and not something -- subject to verification. the free up resources they don't have to focus on the states who are verified electronically. perhaps you can look at these other policies and use additional bear vacations. >> ms. davis we have a picked on you very much. >>> if i could look at it that higher level at the overall improper payments estimate this past year which was up almost $125 million there were drivers and those

i would be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> mr. brune, our next witness is patrick o'carroll jr. inspector since 2004. and mr. o'carol also served as 26 years of service for the united states secret service. mr. carroll? >> good afternoon, chairman johnson. ranking member carper and members of the committee. thank you for the invitation to participate in this discussion. my office investigates hundreds of cases of social security number misuse every year. but recently, one incident stood out from the rest. a man who opened two bank accounts with social security numbers belonged to people born in 1886 and 1893. we can safely assume people today would be 129 and 122 years of age are deceased. however, according to ssa's database of social security number holders these people are alive. living in the sense that ssa does not have dates of death for either person or number holder records. our auditors followed up and found these two records were anything but unique. we recently reported that 6.5 million people whose social security records in