Treasury Recovers $31 Million in Payments to Deceased Individuals

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced it prevented and recovered more than

$31 million in fraud and improper payments during a five-month pilot with the

Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Full Death Master File.

“These results are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk.

“Congress granting permanent access to the Full Death Master File will significantly re-

duce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars.”

Key highlights of the pilot program include:

• $215 Million Projected Net Benefit Over Three Years: Treasury’s initial assessment

projects over $215 million in net benefit during the three-year access period (December

2023 – December 2026).

• Enhanced Detection Capabilities: The integration of SSA’s high-quality death data

re-

sulted in a 139 percent increase in total number of death matches and improved time-

liness and quality of data.

• Increased Federal Program Usage: The pilot effort resulted in notable growth in new

and/or expanded partnerships and increased usage of the DNP Working System.

SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who are reported

to have died. The Full Death Master File contains more than 142 million records, with

records going back to 1899. In the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, Congress

granted Treasury temporary access to the Full Death Master File for a period of three

years, effective December 27, 2023. Treasury’s Office of Payment Integrity provides fed-

eral agencies and federally-funded state-administered programs access to tools and ser-

vices to prevent fraud, including confirming payment eligibility and verifying account

status and ownership.

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