A recent watchdog review found that at least 6.5 million active Social Security 
numbers belong to people who are at least 112 years old and likely deceased.

But only 35 known living individuals worldwide had reached that age as of 
October 2013, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

The review found that one individual opened bank accounts using Social Security 
numbers for individuals born in 1869 and 1893. The official database of active 
Social Security numbers showed that both beneficiaries were alive, meaning they 
would be older than 145 and 121 years, respectively.

Auditors proposed that the Social Security Administration take action to correct 
its death records, but the agency disagreed, saying it doesn’t want to divert 
resources away from efforts to improve payment accuracy with benefits. “The 
recommendations would create a significant manual and labor-intensive workload 
and provide no benefit to the administration of our programs,” Social Security 
management said in a response to the review.