The Treasury Department recovers $31 million in erroneous payments made to deceased individuals by the government.

The Social Security Administration's (SSA) federal death database was accessed by the Treasury Department, resulting in the recovery of over $31 million in fraudulent and incorrect payments made to deceased individuals within just five months.

Billions of payments are issued by the Treasury Department annually, including benefit payments, federally funded state-administered payments, and other miscellaneous payments. However, accidentally sending funds to deceased individuals has been a persistent issue within the federal government, as reported by OpenTheBooks, a fiscal watchdog group.

Nearly $3.6 billion was sent to dead people across all three rounds of stimulus checks during the pandemic, according to OpenTheBooks.

The Treasury Department was granted temporary access to the SSA's database of U.S. citizen deaths in 2023, as part of an omnibus appropriations bill, to help prevent improper payments to deceased individuals. This access is set to expire in 2026.

"According to John Hart, executive director of OpenTheBooks, it's encouraging to see some taxpayer funds being recovered through basic communication among executive agencies. Despite it being a no-brainer for a long time, the left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing, resulting in trillions of dollars in improper payments."

The Internal Revenue Service's failure to verify the SSA's death database led to nearly $4 billion in COVID-19 stimulus payments being sent to deceased individuals, according to Hart.

The Small Business Administration also sent more than $3 billion in forgivable loans to dead people, despite them being on the Treasury Department's 'Do Not Pay' list.

Hart stated that today's news is a positive step, but there is still a long way to go before we achieve balance.

David Lebryk, Fiscal Assistant Secretary, stated that the recovered payments were "just the tip of the iceberg" after the news was announced.

He stated that granting Congress permanent access to the Full Death Master File would significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars.