Treasury Sent $1.4B In Stimulus Checks To Over 1.1M Deceased Americans
While millions of people are still without or have been denied stimulus checks, the US Treasury has sent out a whopping $1.4 billion to over 1.1 million deceased Americans.
As they reviewed data showing how the federal government allocated the $2.6 trillion coronavirus relief packages, including the CARES Act, a Government Accountability Office report, as of April 30, showed at least 130 million $1,200 stimulus checks were issued to dead taxpayers.
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Once the IRS noticed the error, they instructed deceased relatives to return the checks in full, unless the payment was made to joint filers, then only a portion would need to be returned. Subsequently, the GAO also urged Congress to amend the Social Security Act, thus allowing the Social Security Administration to release death data to the Treasury Department to prevent future mistakes.
The report states, “While having this access would not have prevented the economic impact payments to deceased individuals based on IRS’s initial legal determination regarding these payments, such access remains an important safeguard. We maintain that providing Treasury with access to SSA’s full set of death records, and requiring that Treasury consistently use it, could help reduce similar types of improper payments in other circumstances.”
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