More Than 1 Million Stimulus Payments Issued To Deceased, Watchdog Finds

on October 16, 2018 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 16: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin listens during a Financial Stability Oversight Council meeting October 16, 2018 at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC. (Photo by Ale... WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 16: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin listens during a Financial Stability Oversight Council meeting October 16, 2018 at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The federal government sent coronavirus stimulus payments to nearly 1.1 million deceased people totaling close to $1.4 billion, Congress’ independent watchdog said Thursday in revelations first reported by The Washington Post.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent agency that conducts investigations and reports to Congress, submitted the finding as part of a nearly 400-page report on the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus relief spending that was approved by Congress in March and April.

The report is the first of its kind under a Cares Act requirement for the office to issue bimonthly reports on the coronavirus response. The finding also comes as President Trump pushes for another round of stimulus checks to bolster the economy, which has been devastated by the ongoing pandemic. 

The news could sour support from many of the already-reluctant Republicans for additional direct payments for relief from the pandemic, which has ravaged the financial stability of many Americans as jobs are put on hold and layoffs continue. 

The GAO said that payments to the dead were made in error as the Treasury Department and the IRS hurried to disburse some 160.4 million of these payments totaling $269 billion after the Cares Act was passed in March. The problem can be partly attributed to the fact that Social Security Administration has access to a complete set of death records, which were not accessible to Treasury and its Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which are responsible for making the payments.

The report recommended that Congress “provide Treasury with access to the Social Security Administration’s full set of death records, and require that Treasury consistently use it, to help reduce similar types of improper payments.”

The IRS agreed with a recommendation in the report that also said the government agency should consider “cost-effective options” to communicate how checks to ineligible recipients could be returned. 

On May 6, the IRS announced on its website that stimulus payments issued to dead or incarcerated individuals should be given back, but according to the Post, the IRS has not taken any further steps to ensure the return of those payments. 

The report elucidates that controls and filters were at times bypassed in an effort to quickly to pass legislation to buoy the economy amid the shutdown of American cities.

The report says that in an effort to respond urgently “tradeoffs were made,” but that “agencies have made only limited progress so far in achieving transparency and accountability goals.”

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  1. I’m still waiting for mine because I opted to receive my income tax check in the mail vs direct deposit.

    Thanks Obama!

  2. Avatar for fuzz fuzz says:

    Still waiting for mine, too :confused:

  3. Same here.

  4. Does this mean someone will fire his ass for mismanagement of taxpayer money?

    Yeah, I thought so.

    Does this mean he’ll show up in front of the House to explain how that happened?

    Yeah, thought so too.

    I guess the only saving grace is that tRump isn’t able to fire anyone in the GAO since they’re not under his thumb and they are there to report to Congress.

    Take good notes GAO, we’re gonna need them later when we take these fuckers to court for intentionally misappropriating that money. Oh, and if you don’t think some of that money was intentionally misappropriated or handed out simply because they didn’t have death certs from Social Security, I got a bridge to sell you. The IRS under Mnuchin have been playing political games since they refused to hand over tRump’s taxes eons ago, for which they were entitled to have as part of their oversight.

  5. The federal government sent coronavirus stimulus payments to nearly 1.1 million deceased people totaling close to $1.4 billion…

    …out of the $3 trillion in coronavirus relief!

    But wait…there’s more

    Mnuchin = one of Trump’s best INCOMPETENT & CORRUPT people!

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