Treasury Intercepts $99M in Payments to Deceased Individuals

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has intercepted nearly $99 million in federal payments that were flagged for disbursement to deceased individuals, marking a significant milestone in the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on government payment fraud. The achievement was made possible through a new government-wide payment verification system deployed under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14249.

Background: A Longstanding Vulnerability

Improper payments to deceased individuals have plagued federal programs for years. According to the Fox Business, the Treasury screened over 885 million payments totaling approximately $2.77 trillion, identifying more than 4,900 payments associated with deceased payees. Those payments were returned to originating federal agencies for review before any funds were disbursed.

The problem has been persistent across multiple administrations and programs. During the pandemic, $1.4 billion in stimulus checks were sent to deceased individuals. In 2022, the Department of Labor Inspector General reported that 205,766 Social Security numbers of deceased persons were used to file pandemic unemployment claims, resulting in nearly $140 million in potential fraud. More recently, the Government Accountability Office reported that $94 million in Obamacare tax credits may have been paid to deceased individuals in 2023.

The Executive Order and Legislative Action

The initiative stems from Executive Order 14249, “Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse,” signed by President Trump on March 25, 2025, as recorded in the Federal Register. The order directed the Treasury to expand efforts to detect and prevent fraud through the Do Not Pay program and new payment verification tools.

Building on a temporary three-year pilot program established by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, Congress made the verification authority permanent through the “Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act” (S. 269). President Trump signed the bipartisan legislation into law on February 10, 2026, as announced by the White House. The law permanently authorizes Treasury’s access to the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File, enabling more comprehensive identification of deceased payees before payments are issued.

Treasury Secretary Bessent on the Results

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent detailed the program’s success in an interview on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria,” stating: “So far, we’ve saved about $100 million, payments that didn’t go to deceased people… We think that there’s up to $350 million that we can stop before the end of this year.”

Bessent also highlighted the broader scale of the problem, citing GAO estimates that total improper payments across the federal government could reach $500 billion annually, or approximately 1.66% of GDP. “So that could go a long way towards paying down the debt, providing more services, and this is just the start,” he said.

In a Treasury Department press release, Bessent emphasized the importance of prevention over recovery: “What’s important here is that we are stopping the money from going out. So once the money gets out, trying to retrieve it, it’s very, very difficult. So stopping it at the source here is our goal.”

Broader Context and Implications

The problem extends well beyond the payments intercepted this week. Matt Weidinger, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has documented numerous examples of improper payments to deceased individuals across federal programs, including pandemic stimulus checks, unemployment fraud, and healthcare subsidies. Weidinger noted that “government payments to dead people are an ongoing problem,” pointing to cases where the FCC Inspector General found providers in California, Texas, and Oregon claimed funding for over 116,000 subscribers recorded as deceased on Treasury’s Do Not Pay registry.

Vice President JD Vance leads the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which coordinated with Treasury on these efforts. The program represents a key deliverable for the Trump administration’s government efficiency and anti-fraud agenda, with bipartisan roots — the underlying legislation was introduced by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) and had bipartisan cosponsorship including Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL).

What’s Next

The Treasury projects it could stop up to $350 million in additional improper payments by the end of 2026. With the permanent authorization of the Death Master File access now in place, the verification system will continue screening payments across all federal agencies. The GAO’s estimate of $500 billion in total annual improper payments — roughly 1.66% of GDP — suggests significant room for further savings as the administration continues to expand its fraud prevention capabilities.

As Bessent noted, this is “just the start” of a broader effort to modernize the federal payment system and protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse. The Treasury will continue implementing additional payment verification capabilities required under the Executive Order to further strengthen safeguards across the federal government.