The Social Security Death Master File

SSA maintains a Death Master File (DMF). The DMF contains records of deaths that have been reported to SSA from various sources, including family members, funeral homes, hospitals, and financial institutions. 

SSA does not guarantee the accuracy of the DMF. The absence of a particular person from the DMF is not proof that a person is alive. Some individuals listed in the DMF are in fact alive.

The DMF is used to prevent fraud to help prevent stealing the identity of a dead person. It is used by credit reporting agencies, as well as government, financial, investigative, medical research organizations to verify death and to prevent fraud. Conversely, information from the DMF can be used by identity thieves to obtain tax refunds for deceased persons or to apply for credit cards or obtain cell phones.   

Erroneous death entries can lead to benefit termination and closing or freezing of bank accounts, causing financial hardship. They also result in the publication of living individuals' personal identifying information in the DMF. While those who are declared dead generally lose their ability to apply for credit, they may be at risk for other types of identity theft now that their personally-identifying information has been made public.

If you find out that your name is on the DMF, visit your local Social Security Administration (SSA) office with identification. After correcting their records, SSA will provide you with a "Erroneous Death Case - Third Party Contact" notice. You can use this notice to show that your death report was in error.