The Treasury Department has recouped more than $31 million in fraud and improper payments made to dead individuals over a five-month period, thanks to access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) federal death database. The Treasury Department issues billions of payments annually, including benefit payments, federally funded state-administered payments, and other miscellaneous payments.
The issue of sending funds to deceased individuals has been a long-standing problem within the federal government. In 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that $1.4 billion was sent to dead people during the first round of COVID-19 stimulus checks, with nearly $3.6 billion going to dead individuals across all three rounds of stimulus checks.
The SSA is the only government agency with a database that records the deaths of U.S. citizens. In 2023, Congress granted temporary access to the database to help prevent improper payments to dead individuals, which is set to expire in 2026.
John Hart, executive director of OpenTheBooks, praised the recoupment of funds, but noted that too often the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) fails to check the SSA’s death database, resulting in improper payments. He also pointed out that the Small Business Administration sent over $3 billion to dead individuals in the form of forgivable loans.
Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk noted that the results announced are “just the tip of the iceberg” and stressed that Congress should grant permanent access to the Full Death Master File to significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars.