The Treasury Says It Caught $99 Million in Federal Payments About to Go Out to Dead People
by Jerome London · Thought CatalogUpdated 2 minutes ago, July 25, 2026
The catch came from a new screening system that checks payments against the government’s official list of who’s died. Roughly 4,900 payments got flagged and sent back before the money went out the door.
Treasury screened more than 885 million payments worth nearly $2.77 trillion through the process and found about 4,900 tied to people who had already died. Those payments, worth roughly $99 million, went back to the federal agencies that issued them for review before any funds moved.
The department announced the numbers Tuesday. It credits the results to an expanded verification process built after President Trump’s March 2025 executive order targeting fraud and improper payments.
“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,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
The screening leans on the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File. Congress gave Treasury permanent access to that data in February through the bipartisan Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act, after a three-year pilot that started with temporary access in 2021.
During that pilot’s first year, the department projected about $330 million in net benefits between 2024 and 2026 from cutting improper payments.
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