Federal Government is Paying Dead People

Over a three-year span, the government sent more than $180 million to departed Americans and $230 million to convicted felons who were ineligible for the payments. The White House estimates that $110 billion was improperly paid out in 2009 (including erroneous payments from Medicare and Medicaid). In response, the Obama administration created a “do not pay” list. Once the database is working, agencies will have to search the list before mailing out checks. A few agencies already had individual lists, but the order signed by Obama on Friday will centralize the information into one list.

See Mark S. Smith, Why Is the Gov’t Paying Dead People?, AP, June 21, 2010.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this to my attention.