The article clarifies misconceptions surrounding Social Security payments, debunking the myth that deceased individuals are collecting benefits. The issue largely stems from misunderstandings of COBOL, the programming language that has been foundational for the Social Security Administration's systems for over 50 years. With over 60 million lines of COBOL code, its peculiarities, especially regarding date representation, have led to erroneous placeholder dates, notably May 20, 1875, which are assigned when actual birth dates are missing. This confusion illustrates the challenges faced by modern IT systems managing legacy codes.
According to Manjeet Rege, the most common placeholder date in government databases is May 20, 1875—a peculiar quirk tied to the ISO 8601 standard.
The underlying technology of Social Security, particularly its reliance on COBOL, has resulted in misunderstandings, leading some to mistakenly think dead people are still receiving benefits.
COBOL's lack of standardization in date representation has caused confusion in processing claims, which impacts how individuals are assigned birth dates.
The tale of Social Security's age, its old technology, and misunderstandings illustrates the challenges faced by modern IT systems dealing with legacy programming.
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