The Treasury Department has blocked approximately $99 million in government payments associated with dead recipients since expanding a federal verification system in March 2025, according to information obtained by The New York Post.
Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service uncovered more than 4,900 questionable disbursements while screening an enormous river of federal money: 885 million payments totaling nearly $2.7 trillion.
The payments were stopped before the money went out the door and returned to the originating agencies for further review.
That distinction matters. A payment associated with a deceased person can be a warning sign of fraud, but it does not automatically prove criminal conduct. The review process allows agencies to determine whether a payment was improper, outdated or otherwise legitimate.
Still, the savings are substantial. Treasury identified more than three times the roughly $31 million previously discovered going to deceased recipients before President Trump returned to office last year.
“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.
The initiative works with Vice President JD Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which has been charged with identifying weaknesses in federal programs and preventing taxpayer money from reaching ineligible recipients.
“Together with Vice President Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this new safeguard addresses a longstanding vulnerability and helps ensure every dollar the federal government spends reaches its intended recipient,” Bessent said.
“Treasury will continue efforts to modernize the federal payment system, strengthen safeguards against fraud and improper payments, and protect taxpayer dollars.”
Treasury relied on its Do Not Pay program and other verification tools to flag the questionable transactions. The system checks a recipient’s identity, eligibility and banking information before a federal payment or award is approved.
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The department significantly expanded those reviews last year at Trump’s direction, applying the process across the federal government instead of waiting for agencies to discover improper payments after the money disappeared.
One of the most important tools is the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File, a database used to verify whether an intended recipient has died.
Congress granted Treasury temporary access to the full file through legislation passed in 2021. Trump made that access permanent in February by signing the Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act.
Treasury estimates that preventing payments to deceased recipients will eventually produce $330 million in net benefits.
The $99 million blocked so far represents only 0.0036% of the $2.7 trillion reviewed. That small percentage shows both the scale of the federal payment system and the difficulty of catching improper transactions buried among hundreds of millions of legitimate ones.
But a tiny percentage of trillions is still real money.
The administration’s challenge will be turning the initial findings into lasting savings while ensuring legitimate payments are not delayed or mistakenly blocked. It must also determine how thousands of deceased recipients remained attached to federal disbursements in the first place.
For Bessent, the objective is to catch the error before taxpayers are forced to chase the money.
Washington has spent years paying first and asking questions later. Treasury’s new rule is simpler: No federal checks for anyone who has already checked out.
More over at The New York Post:
Treasury stopped nearly $100 million in taxpayer money from going to dead people https://t.co/5iTlHr8m1U pic.twitter.com/FW091ALHdu
— New York Post (@nypost) July 21, 2026
