US recovers $31 million in Social Security payments to dead people

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ever since the U.S. Social Security Administration opened its books to the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service, it has been able to stop and recover more than $31 million in improper Social Security payments to dead people.

“These results are just the tip of the iceberg,” the Treasury’s Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk said in a news release.

As part of the omnibus appropriations bill in 2021, Congress gave the Treasury temporary access to the SSA’s “Full Death Master File” for three years, effective December 2023 through 2026. 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 Treasury projects that it will recover more than $215 million during its three-year access period.

“Congress granting permanent access to the Full Death Master File will significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars,” Lebryk said.

The effort has shown areas where the government is preventing fraud, waste and abuse — which is also one of Donald Trump’s campaign promises.

The president-elect has tapped two business titans — Elon Musk and Vivek Rameswamy — to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a new nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, all part of what Trump calls his “Save America” agenda for his second term in the White House.

A representative from the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the incoming administration would continue the efforts or seek to make the Treasury’s temporary access to the file permanent.

Fatima Hussein, The Associated Press