[5] It is also used by financial and credit firms and government agencies to match records and prevent identity fraud.
Lorretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargraves Luebking report in The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy (1997) that the total number of deaths in the United States from 1962 to September 1991 is estimated at 58.2 million.
[1] Conversely, the Social Security Administration estimates that roughly 12,000 living people are added to the File annually, potentially due to clerical error.
Because the File is used widely for commercial purposes, an erroneous listing can lead to not only a cessation of government benefits, but also the freezing of bank accounts, the inability to buy or rent property, and mistaken accusations of identity theft.
[1][8] The Office of the Inspector General called the error rate "very low", but noted that "SSA’s erroneous death entries can lead to mistaken benefit terminations and cause severe financial hardship and distress to affected people.