US Recovers $31M It Paid to Dead People

The US government clawed back more than $31 million in Social Security payments that improperly went to dead people, a recovery that one official said Wednesday was "just the tip of the iceberg." The money was reclaimed as part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave the Department of Treasury temporary access to the Social Security Administration 's "Full Death Master File" for three years as part of the omnibus appropriations bill in 2021. The SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who have died, and the file contains more than 142 million records, which go back to 1899, according to the Treasury.

The AP reports the Treasury projects that it will recover more than $215 million during its three-year access period, which runs from December 2023 through 2026. "These results are just the tip of the iceberg," the Treasury's Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk said in a news release. He urged Congress to give the Treasury full access to the master file, saying it would "significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars."

(More Social Security stories.)