Pensions are still being paid out to nearly 30,000 Spaniards who have died.
The cost to the taxpayer is estimated to be some €25 million every month.
The figures, released by the country’s Audit Office, show that 29,321 dead pensioners were still in receipt of pension payments.
The agency worked out the figure by checking payments from the social security system for December 2014 and comparing these to deaths registered from 1989 at the National Institute of Statistics
The Audit Office report said that the Social Security Office had "failed to use effective controls over who it pays pensions to, and neither do the banks through which pensions are paid."
At the same time, the acting government of Mariano Rajoy said it had to dive into the Social Security Reserve Fund for the second time this month to meet pension payments. It said €1 billion had to be taken out to pay tax rebates due on pensions.
