The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it prevented nearly $100 million in welfare payments to dead people, thanks to new fraud prevention measures implemented by the Trump administration.
Since March 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department had identified 4,900 payments worth $99 million that were slated to go to dead people. The payments never went out because they were flagged for review after the department implemented new payment verification policies.
“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,” Bessent said in a statement. “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.”
The payments were identified as the department screened 885 million payments worth about $2.77 trillion.
Bessent said the screening took place because the department has increased access to the Social Security Administration’s death master file, making it easier to identify deceased payees. He also pointed to the adoption of the Do Not Pay program, which requires identity verification, eligibility confirmation, and bank account information before any payment is doled out.
“Treasury will continue efforts to modernize the federal payment system, strengthen safeguards against fraud and improper payments, and protect taxpayer dollars,” Bessent said.
In his first few months back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at empowering the Treasury Department to identify fraud. Trump’s executive order noted that the Government Accountability Office estimates that the government loses between $233 and $521 billion every year in fraud.
“This order promotes financial integrity by enabling the Department of the Treasury to more easily conduct improper payment and fraud prevention screening prior to disbursing funds on behalf of agencies,” Trump directed in March 2025. “This order increases transparency and accountability by requiring agencies to provide the Department of the Treasury with the information needed to track transactions through the General Fund in greater detail.”
The Trump administration has brought a strong emphasis on combating fraud with the White House creating a new task force under Vice President JD Vance focused on tackling the issue. The task force opened up an investigation in Ohio after The Daily Wire reported on spurious entities being paid millions for so-called home health care services.
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