A federal audit has revealed a near-perfect accuracy record in how the Social Security Administration assigns numbers to newborns, though thousands of dollars in potential fraud remain exposed through a few hundred unresolved glitches.
According to a report released Wednesday by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the agency correctly assigned a single Social Security number (SSN) to infants 99.997 percent of the time between January 2021 and September 2024.
Out of nearly 13.9 million numbers issued through the Enumeration at Birth (EAB) program during that nearly four-year period, auditors identified 420 infants who were issued duplicate SSNs that were never properly cross-referenced or flagged by the agency.
While the error rate represents a fraction of a percent, watchdog officials warned that even minor gaps in the system carry significant long-term risks for taxpayer-funded benefit programs.
“While SSA’s accuracy at 99.997 is notable, the goal always is to prevent issuing individuals multiple SSNs through EAB,” said Michelle L. Anderson, Assistant Inspector General for Audit. “When SSA assigns more than one SSN to the same infant, and does not properly cross-reference the records or designate the additional SSN(s) as retired, this increases the risk of improper payments.”
If left uncorrected, a single person holding two active Social Security numbers could theoretically double-dip into federal and state safety nets later in life. Fraud risks include fraudulently claiming duplicate Supplemental Security Income (SSI), tapping into Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance under separate identities, or collecting overlapping state unemployment and food assistance benefits.
The EAB program operates across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Under the setup, parents request a number at hospitals, birthing centers, or through licensed midwives. Local vital statistics offices aggregate the data and transmit it electronically to the SSA.
Because the federal agency relies entirely on state-provided data and does not modify birth records independently, human or system errors at the state level can pass directly into federal databases unchecked.
The Inspector General recommended that the SSA review the 420 flagged cases, cross-reference the conflicting files, and officially retire the duplicate numbers. Agency officials agreed to implement the fixes.
