Treasury says it flagged $99M in payments linked to dead people

(NewsNation) — The Treasury Department says its new payment verification process has flagged about $99 million in federal payments linked to people who had died.

Treasury said Tuesday it has screened more than 885 million payments worth nearly $2.77 trillion through the process and identified roughly 4,900 payments associated with deceased payees.

Those payments, worth roughly $99 million, were returned to the originating federal agencies for review before any funds were distributed.

“Treasury has delivered on a key promise of President Trump’s mandate to stop improper payments and fraud before money leaves the Treasury, and strengthen the integrity of the federal payment system,” Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Treasury said the expanded payment verification process was implemented as a result of President Trump’s March 2025 executive order, which aimed to strengthen government-wide efforts to detect fraud and improper payments.

Tuesday’s announcement comes as the Trump administration continues to make identifying fraud and improper payments a central focus of its agenda, including through Elon Musk’s now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which ultimately fell well short of its ambitious federal spending reduction target.

In February, Congress passed the bipartisan Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act, giving Treasury permanent access to the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File to help prevent payments from being sent to dead people.

Before that, Treasury was granted temporary access to the data in 2021 as part of a three-year pilot program. During the pilot’s first year, Treasury projected about $330 million in net benefits between 2024 and 2026 from reducing improper payments.

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