Social Security Denies Claim It Falsely Classified 2.7M People as Dead

The Social Security Administration (SSA) denied allegations Friday that it had planned to classify 2.7 million people as dead, after pressure to cut off immigrants from finances and government services under the Trump administration.

The whistleblower account, from former employee Jeremiah Schofield, highlighted by Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, and Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, raised concerns about federal privacy rules, and highlighted the tensions over the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was said to have pushed the SSA to declare the individuals as deceased.

“The whistleblower's disclosure appears to reveal a carefully planned, willful falsification of federal government records in order to weaponize the SSA as a tool for immigration enforcement,” the senators wrote in a June 4 letter to the SSA’s commissioner Frank J. Bisignano.

An SSA official told Newsweek that the agency had not placed 2.7 million names to the Death Master File (DMF), adding that it “maintains the highest level of internal controls” which maintain the accuracy and integrity of personal records.

Newsweek reached out to Schofield’s attorney and the White House via email for comment Friday afternoon.

What Is the Death Master File?

The SSA’s DMF is a federal database used to track deceased individuals and is relied upon across government and the private sector to verify identity and prevent fraud. According to the whistleblower disclosure, the file includes identifying information such as Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth and death, and last known residence.

Once a person is listed as deceased in the SSA's internal Numident system, that designation is automatically transmitted to the DMF, which is widely used by banks, credit agencies, benefits programs, and employers.

The consequences of being incorrectly listed as dead can be severe and immediate.

"Marking a live individual as deceased within these systems has dire real-life consequences for the individual,” Schofield wrote. “The individual's bank account and credit cards become frozen immediately. Any benefits for which they are eligible, such as Social Security or other public benefits, cease immediately. The individual cannot legally work."

Where Did the Claims Originate?

The latest allegations stem from a June 3 whistleblower disclosure submitted to Congress by the former senior SSA official who had more than 25 years of experience.

Schofield described internal discussions during early 2025 involving members of DOGE, a Trump administration initiative linked to Elon Musk, which had embedded staff within federal agencies including the SSA.

According to the disclosure, DOGE personnel pushed SSA officials to identify large-scale fraud within Social Security systems but instead allegedly focused on manipulating databases, including adding death dates to records without evidence.

The most serious allegations involve two efforts:

• A directive in April 2025 to mark more than 6,000 individuals as deceased based on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) list, despite no proof they had died.
• A broader plan to mark as many as 2.7 million people as deceased, which the whistleblower says he and others refused to carry out after finding most sampled individuals were alive and legally present in the United States.

The disclosure also described a conversation in which a DHS-linked official allegedly said the goal of marking individuals as dead would be to either force them to "self-deport" or make them appear at SSA offices where they could be detained.

Schofield described a meeting he had with DOGE staff, including Jon Koval, who asked the SSA to implement the plan.

“When I left the room, I felt sickened by Mr. Koval's confirmation that the United States government was attempting to falsify Social Security data in this improper and illegal manner for the purpose of deporting millions of people,” Schofield wrote. “From that day on until I left SSA, I continued to do my best to keep SSA functioning on behalf of the American people, and I kept firm in my resolve to not allow SSA data to be used for illegal purposes.”

These claims build on earlier reporting in 2025 that the Trump administration had authorized adding immigrants to the DMF as part of an enforcement effort, though the whistleblower alleges a far broader and more systematic plan.

"As always with the Trump Administration, cruelty is the point. Thanks to this brave whistleblower's disclosure, we have more evidence that the Trump Administration used DOGE not just to recklessly slash government programs – they were looking for ways to purposefully hurt people, especially immigrants," Blumenthal wrote in a press release.

How Did Social Security Respond?

Schofield said the internal reaction within SSA was divided, with career staff warning that the directives were illegal and could violate federal law, including the Privacy Act and SSA regulations requiring proof of death before records can be changed.

The whistleblower and his colleagues said they refused to carry out the request to mark individuals as dead without evidence and sought legal guidance from agency counsel, which he said confirmed the action would be unlawful.

Despite these objections, the disclosure alleges that another office within SSA ultimately moved forward with marking more than 6,000 individuals as deceased in April 2025 using batch updates to the system. Field offices soon began receiving visits from people who had discovered they had been wrongly classified as dead, prompting SSA staff to use existing procedures to restore their records.

For the larger proposed list of 2.7 million people, the whistleblower said SSA officials resisted implementation, instead proposing an alternative "special indicator" flag that would avoid triggering the same financial consequences.

It remains unclear from the document whether the broader plan was ever carried out. The whistleblower said that as of his departure in October 2025, the 2.7 million individuals had not been added to the Death Master File. The SSA told Newsweek it had not carried out the plan.

Separately, Warren and Blumenthal, staunch critics of DOGE, have demanded answers from SSA leadership, citing "alarming manipulation and falsification of Social Security data" and raising concerns that the actions may have violated a federal court order limiting DOGE's access to sensitive records.

The senators asked the SSA to respond to their request for details on the alleged plan by June 18, including information on what access DOGE employees had to its databases.

What Impact Would Removing 2.7M People Have on Social Security?

The document did not quantify a direct budgetary effect on Social Security's finances, but it stressed that marking large numbers of individuals as deceased would have significant consequences for individuals and the integrity of federal data systems.

Because SSA's databases underpin eligibility for Social Security benefits, employment verification, and financial services, falsely removing millions of people from these systems would likely result in widespread disruption to benefits administration and identity verification processes.

More broadly, the allegations pointed to risks to the reliability of SSA data itself. The disclosure warned that introducing inaccurate death records could undermine confidence in a system relied upon across the public and private sectors, while potentially exposing the government to legal liability from affected individuals under the Privacy Act.

The whistleblower also described the effort as turning SSA systems into a tool for immigration enforcement rather than their intended purpose, a concern which was raised about various government agencies in 2025.

“While this declaration is focused on the DOGE team's directions to illegally make changes to the Numident system and the Death Master File, I was involved in other conversations from which I learned that DOGE may have been engaged in similar activities misusing SSA data with other agencies,” Schofield alleged.

“Specifically, I understand that DOGE was trying to use SSA data to prevent immigrants from receiving SNAP benefits and Medicare benefits. Furthermore, their actions in other areas had significant negative impacts on the administration of benefits for individuals, including by making it more difficult for SSA employees to provide adequate service to American citizens and lawful SSN holders.”

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