Government Officials Differ Over Authority To Limit Access to SSA’s Death Master File

The Internal Revenue Service acknowledged significant problems with tax fraud May 8, but government officials differed over whether legislation is necessary to limit access to the Social Security Administration’s database containing the personal information of deceased Americans.

Limiting access to the Death Master File is often raised as an option for cutting down on the connection between identity theft and how it contributes to tax fraud, but since 1980, the SSA has been required to make public the file, which contains Social Security numbers of the deceased.

Access to the file “creates a significant risk of [Social Security number] misuse ...