Social Security Administration officials may be enabling identity theft by not ensuring applicants for disability benefits are who they claim to be.
Federal policy requires that officials ask disability-claims applicants six open-ended questions to verify their identities, according to a report released by the agency’s inspector general Monday.
“We found claims representatives did not always ask the applicants all of the questions,” the report said.
Neglecting some of the questions increases the “risk of an individual using another person’s identity to file a fraudulent claim to obtain benefits,” the report said.
Less than a third of the disability applicants observed by investigators were asked all of the questions. Additionally, 14 percent — that’s more than one applicant in 10 — were asked only half of the questions or less than half.
Despite the requirements, nearly two-thirds of the applicants weren’t asked their father’s name, nearly a third weren’t asked their mother’s maiden name, and nearly one in five wasn’t asked where they were born. Officials usually asked for the applicant’s own name, Social Security number and date of birth.
“The questions most often not asked … are pieces of information that may be less likely to be publicly available than” the other questions, said inspector general’s spokeswoman Tracy Lynge. “We felt that not asking all six questions increased the risk of a false claim because knowing the answers to all six questions — as opposed to just three — is a stronger indicator that the person is applying in his or her own, legitimate identity.”
The Social Security Administration agreed to remind their offices to follow policy when verifying an applicant’s identity.
Auditors found the results by observing claims representatives interview 66 applicants.
“[W]e did not — and cannot — draw any conclusions about whether these limited sample findings represent a frequent or agency-wide practice,” Lynge said. “Although identity verification wasn’t the focus of this particular audit, we will consider this issue as one that may warrant a separate future audit.”
A spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration was unable to provide a comment to the Washington Examiner before press time.
020315 Barton Identity by Hoai Tran Bui
