Turkish Social Security Authority cancels 245,000 benefit recipients using AI analysis
Turkey's Social Security Authority used AI to identify 245,740 people with fraudulent employment registrations and canceled their benefits, pensions, and demanded repayment of payments plus interest. The system analyzed 4.6 million businesses registered between 2011 and 2016 across approximately 100 parameters as part of a fraud detection project launched in 2016.
What happened
The Turkish Social Security Authority (SGK) canceled the insurance and retirement benefits of 245,740 people identified through AI-powered analysis as having false employment registrations, according to reporting in April 2026.
The cancellations were part of a project launched in 2016 called 'Sahte İş Yeri ve Sahte Sigortalılık Tespit Projesi' (False Employment and False Insurance Detection Project), which analyzed data from 4.6 million businesses registered between 2011 and 2016 using AI algorithms and approximately 100 different parameters.
Reported impact
The SGK not only canceled insurance and retirement benefits but also cut the pensions of retirees and demanded repayment of all previous payments with interest, as well as recovered healthcare expenses.
The 245,740 benefit cancellations were traced to 3,273 false businesses, with cases reportedly involving both the individuals identified as having false registrations and those accused of establishing the false employment schemes.
Index analysis
The AI system reduced the detection timeframe from 1,000 days to under 360 days by analyzing multiple parameters across millions of employment records.
In the 15th phase of the project, 128 false businesses were identified with 18,191 false registrations; in the 16th phase, 195 false businesses contained 20,578 false registrations.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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