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Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said “eliminating fraud, waste and abuse” is the “first solution” to protecting the retirement program as concerns persist over its long-term finances.
During an appearance on “Big Money in the Morning,” Bisignano discussed efforts to improve agency records, modernize operations and safeguard the program.
“The president has been very, very clear. Protect and preserve. The first steps of protecting was to get the operations to work right. Any good business fixes its technology, fixes its operations, fixes its books and records, and that’s what’s been going on,” Bisignano said.
The comments come as Social Security faces a longstanding funding challenge. The program relies primarily on payroll taxes to pay benefits, while its trust funds help cover the difference when costs exceed incoming revenue.
Without legislative changes, depletion of those reserves would not mean benefits would stop altogether, but incoming taxes alone would be insufficient to pay scheduled benefits in full.
SOCIAL SECURITY CORRECTS NEARLY 50 MILLION RECORDS IN LARGEST SSN CLEANUP IN AGENCY HISTORY
The agency has also been working to correct incomplete or inaccurate records, including missing dates of death and citizenship information.
HOW CONGRESS COULD ADDRESS SOCIAL SECURITY INSOLVENCY – AND THE HIDDEN COST
Bisignano said the cleanup involves the agency’s entire database, clarifying that the roughly 15% figure discussed in the interview referred to records corrected, not the share reviewed.
“15% is the amount of records that were corrected. We’ve gone through 100%,” he said.
Bisignano also described artificial intelligence as a tool for improving service, processing and recordkeeping, while emphasizing coordination between government agencies.
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