Treasury Department Recovers $31 Million in Payments to Dead People

The Treasury Department announced this week that it had recovered more than $31 million through fraud and improper payments to deceased people in just five months after gaining access to the federal death database. the Social Security Administration (SSA).

THE Treasury Department issues billions of payments each year, including benefit payments, federally funded state-administered payments, and other miscellaneous payments. Sending these and other funds by accident to deceased people has been a long-standing problem within the federal government, according to the budget watchdog group OpenTheBooks..

In 2020, the Government Accountability Office estimated that during the first round of COVID-19 stimulus checks, $1.4 billion was sent to people who died. During the three rounds of stimulus checks during the pandemic, nearly $3.6 billion was paid to people who died, according to OpenTheBooks.

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The SSA is the only government agency with a database that records deaths of U.S. citizens. In 2023, as part of an omnibus appropriations bill, Congress granted access to the Department of the Treasury, on a temporary basis, to gain access to the database to help prevent improper payments to deceased individuals. The temporary basis is set to expire in 2026.

A Social Security card sits next to U.S. Treasury checks in Washington, DC, October 14, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“While this should have been obvious a long time ago, it is promising to see some taxpayer dollars being recovered through basic communication between executive agencies,” said John Hart, executive director of OpenTheBooks. “Too often, the left hand simply doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, resulting in billions of dollars in improper payments.”

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Hart blamed the nearly $4 billion in stimulus payments sent to people who died as a result of COVID-19. Internal Revenue Service failure to verify SSA death database.

He also highlighted how, in addition to irregular payments through the stimulus check program, the Small Business Administration also sent more than $3 billion in additional dollars to deceased individuals in the form of forgivable loans “to entities listed on the Treasury Department “Do Not Pay” List. “.

“Congress providing permanent access to the Full Death Master File will significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better protect taxpayer dollars,” said Deputy Finance Secretary David Lebryk. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

“Today’s news is a step in the right direction, but there is still a way to go before we break even,” Hart said.

After the recouped payments were announced, Deputy Finance Secretary David Lebryk noted that the results were “just the tip of the iceberg.”

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“Congress granting permanent access to the Full Death Master File will significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity and better protect taxpayer dollars,” he said.