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Social Security was built as a lifeline for American workers — not a pension system for the world. Yet, every month, the U.S. government sends Social Security checks to over 700,000 individuals living outside the United States. Shockingly, nearly half of these recipients aren’t even U.S. citizens. They live in countries ranging from Japan to Mexico — and even in areas like Gaza, where terrorist groups operate openly.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a matter of charity or diplomatic goodwill. This is a matter of policy — and cost. A policy that began quietly decades ago, without a direct vote by Congress, has now ballooned into a $5.5 billion annual outflow of American payroll taxes to foreign nationals living abroad. Since the 1940s, when overseas payments were first introduced, the total cost has soared into the tens of billions. And it’s only rising.
An Unvoted Policy With Massive Consequences
The Social Security Act of 1935, amended many times since, empowered the Social Security Administration (SSA) to determine eligibility based on contributions — not citizenship. That means a foreign national who worked legally in the U.S. for just ten years could return home and collect retirement benefits for life. Their foreign-born spouse or child might also qualify for monthly checks, so long as they meet minimal residency rules — often just five years.
No standalone vote in Congress ever authorized the creation of a global Social Security disbursement network. Instead, the SSA — in partnership with the State Department — embedded what are known as Federal Benefits Units (FBUs) inside U.S. embassies and consulates around the world. These FBUs exist in more than two dozen countries including Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, Mexico, and the Philippines. Even Yemen and Gaza — regions marked by instability and, in some cases, known terrorist activity — are served by SSA offices in their U.S. embassies.
A System Ripe for Abuse
To administer these overseas payments, the SSA relies on foreign postal systems, “proof-of-life” forms, and, in theory, help from embassies to confirm recipients are alive and eligible. But a 2024 federal audit found nearly $38 million had been mistakenly paid to individuals already listed as deceased by the U.S. State Department. That’s just one year’s worth of documented errors. The real figure over decades is likely far higher.
The SSA admits it made over $71 billion in improper payments between 2015 and 2022 alone. Many of those occurred internationally, where oversight is weakest. In countries like the Philippines, Greece, and Italy, entire cottage industries of “claims fixers” have historically helped individuals — sometimes fraudulently — qualify for U.S. benefits.
Social Security for Terror Hotspots?
Perhaps most troubling is the fact that U.S. Social Security payments are reaching recipients in conflict zones and terrorist-controlled regions. According to U.S. and Israeli sources, benefits have reached individuals residing in the Gaza Strip — a region controlled by Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. While many recipients are likely innocent retirees, the mere fact that funds flow into such regions raises urgent questions about fraud, misuse, and unintended consequences.
Why is the United States — facing a Social Security trust fund projected to be insolvent by the mid-2030s — still sending checks to foreign nationals in conflict zones?
The Reciprocity Myth
Supporters argue that payments to foreigners are offset by “reciprocity”: if we pay their citizens, they pay ours. But that argument falls apart under scrutiny. Only 30 countries have totalization agreements with the U.S., meaning over 120 countries receive U.S. benefits with no obligation to return the favor.
Take Mexico. Despite nearly 60,000 Mexican recipients of U.S. Social Security, the U.S.–Mexico totalization agreement signed in 2004 was never even submitted to Congress due to fears about its cost and potential for abuse. Yet payments to Mexican nationals continue unabated under “reciprocity” clauses the public never voted on.
Americans Are Paying the Price
The current system undermines the very purpose of Social Security: to support Americans who paid into it and now rely on it. With growing concerns about solvency, aging demographics, and benefit cuts looming for future retirees, it is morally indefensible to prioritize foreign payouts over domestic stability.
It’s time for a real conversation about who Social Security is for.
A Common-Sense Reform Agenda
Here’s what Congress must do:
End automatic overseas eligibility for foreign nationals and their dependents.
Require strict reciprocity backed by formal treaties — no treaty, no payments.
Prohibit payments to individuals residing in regions controlled by terrorist organizations.
Audit foreign payments annually, with biometric identity verification and embassy-based checks.
Publicly disclose all countries receiving payments, with cost breakdowns and fraud data.
We cannot continue to let a bloated, opaque system drain billions in public funds while our own seniors worry about making ends meet.
Social Security was never meant to be a global pension program. It’s time to bring it home.
Join me at www.lynnscheid.com
