In my family i was responsible for arranging care of the deceased much like you did in your family Karl. At least in the NY Metro area funeral directors are required to notify the Social Security Administration, and they do this immediately, prior to any action on the part of the health department processing the death certificates. It is actually amazing how an extra payment to the deceased's bank account is instantly rescinded once SSA gets the report.

Perhaps there are multiple ways that SSA finds out so that there is redundancy built in, however the NY funeral directors always report. This makes for very current data. Note that i checked with the funeral director family that helped us for generations that this is correct. There is no lag in the reporting, at least in NY.

I have heard of payments going out in other areas for months when such data is not reported, but ultimately it is always figured out and often leads to fraud charges. This is where the lag by the health departments shows itself.

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YCNU.