This meme, or one similar, is going viral. It happens daily with fake news creating division and controversy.
Truth, funeral homes are supposed to report a death to the Social Security Administration. In a perfect world, everyone would do the right thing all of the time.
Unfortunately, that perceived Utopia does not exist.
That's simply not how the real world works.
Let's ask this question: What if a funeral home is shady and unethical? Maybe a favor is done for a family and they do not report a death? What if the funeral home forgets and someone falls through the cracks? It is plausible that either scenario could happen.
The Social Security Administration's website states:
Funeral homes generally tell us when someone dies. So, you don’t typically need to report a death to us.
If a funeral home isn’t involved or doesn't report the death for some reason, you should call us and provide the name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death for the person who died.
Call +1 800-772-1213
What if you don't use a funeral home when someone dies?
Most states, in fact, don't require you to use a one? Many families choose to use a cremation service. Cremation service providers should report as well, but what if they don't? What if the family tells the funeral home or cremation service they have already reported the death?
When in fact, they have not.
That's a real possibility. They never have an obituary published in the local newspaper or on a website. What if seemingly the person is still alive, and Social Security payments keep coming?
It can happen. As much as Elon Musk says it happens? Doubtful, but who knows? Those numbers exposed by DOGE mean something.
On Phaneuf Funeral & Crematorium in Brattleboro, Vermont, it states: “According to the Social Security Administration some 6.5 million people over the age of 112 have no death certificates on file. The Associated Press reports that there are only 42 people known to be that old in the entire world and just 13 people receiving Social Security benefits in the US who are age 112 or older.”
Is that where Elon Musk is getting his information? That's a lot of people without a death certificate.
Digging deeper.
In AARP magazine 2021 article, it stated, “Social Security officials calculated that a woman who was sent monthly checks for decades was 114 years old.”
Who cashed her checks? Her nephew. How much? $458,992. How long? Nearly 42 years.
Then there are hackers on the Dark Web stealing medical data of the dead to sell.
That article says: “the personal data of the deceased can be used for fraudulent activity that can go unnoticed for years.”
It continues:
Known as “ghosting,” scammers have ample time to use this information for fraud since it can take six months for credit-reporting bureaus, financial institutions, and the Social Security Administration to receive, share or register death records.
Here's a 2024 headline from an Office of Inspector General Social Security Administration press release: Two Defendants Are Sentenced For Stealing Social Security Benefits.
“According to filed court documents and court proceedings, from 2009 to 2023, Barber stole SSA survivor’s benefits which were paid monthly in the name of a deceased beneficiary,” the release stated.
“Henry Lionel Barber, 77, of Charlotte, was sentenced to three years of probation, with eight months of home confinement, for theft of government funds and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $140,541 to SSA,” according to the release.
In another instance from that same press release:
According to court records in this case, as early as 1992, Gay stole the identity of Alvin Vincent Lee, an infant that died in the 1940’s. Gay used Alvin Vincent Lee’s information, including a birth certificate, to fraudulently obtain a North Carolina Driver’s License and a Social Security card under Alvin Vincent Lee’s name. Court records also show that, in 2006, Gay applied for and began to receive retirement benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from the SSA under Alvin Vincent Lee’s name. In total, Gay collected approximately $142,000 in funds administered by the SSA in the form of retirement benefits and SSI.
A release on Jan. 28, 2025, from the United States Attorney's Office, District of Kansas: “A Kansas couple was sentenced to prison for illegally taking proceeds from a relative’s Social Security and retirement benefits for years after his death.”
The details?
“After July 2016, $68,637 in pension payments and $147,429 in Social Security payments were deposited into the bank account. Lynn and Kirk Ritter did not report the death, and instead without authority, wrote checks on the deceased’s account and transferred funds into their bank accounts to use for their own personal benefit.”
Here's a 2019 release from New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. He announced that “a Middlesex County man was indicted today for allegedly stealing $117,000 in Social Security benefits that continued to be paid for his mother for approximately 21 years after she died.”
In Georgia, the United States Attorney's Office Northern District of Georgia announced two women were sentenced for “theft of government funds for their unlawful receipt of Social Security benefits intended for relatives, who died years earlier.”
Here are a few more cases.
Read about that case here.
Here's a release from Hawaii's Attorney General in 2004.
Do a Google search. The thefts and arrests are endless.
A person doesn't need Elon Musk to tell them dead people are still receiving Social Security Administration checks. Well, in reality the dead people aren’t. They are dead, but relatives, friends and con artists could be receiving checks and ultimately stealing from the government. In other words, stealing from you the taxpayers.
Look at this 2015 report.
But in the 2015 report it states:
That same year the agency automatically stopped payments to people who are older than 115 years old, according to the report.
Read the whole 2015 report here.
Numerous news outlets reported this week that the reason there isn't a new SSA system in place is because it would cost roughly $9 million.
Here's a similar 2023 report.
Here is a summary from the report.
Read the full report here.
In fact, the real question is why are people believing a meme in the first place? Just because it's going viral doesn't make it true. What makes content creator generated memes more reliable than the information Elon Musk and DOGE are releasing? Like it or not Musk seemingly holds the keys to government data— at least for now.
Put on your critical thinking caps and do your own investigation.
Trusting a meme is no different than believing that cable TV commentary is real news.
South Arkansas Reckoning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our investigations, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber for $5 a month or $33.75 a year. Wanna leave a comment? Upgrade to paid.
