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Stimulus checks sent to 72,000 dead people... 72,000 stimulus payments went to dead people - Yahoo! News
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 7, 11:33 pm ET
WASHINGTON – More than 89,000 stimulus payments of $250 each went to people who were either dead or in prison, a government investigator says in a new report.
The payments, which were part of last year's massive economic recovery package, were meant to increase consumer spending to help stimulate the economy.
But about $18 million went to nearly 72,000 people who were dead, according to the report by the Social Security Administration's inspector general. The report estimates that a little more than half of those payments were returned.
An additional $4.3 million went to more than 17,000 prison inmates, the report said. Most of the inmates, it turns out, were eligible to get the payments because they were newly incarcerated and had been receiving Social Security before they were locked up.
In all, the $250 payments were sent to about 52 million people who receive either Social Security or Supplemental Security Income, at a cost of about $13 billion. Other federal retirees also received the payments, but they were not part of the inspector general's review.
Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter said, "Inaccurate payments are unacceptable. Social Security's Recovery Act payments were 99.8 percent accurate and we quickly collected the majority of the inaccurate payments. Each year we make payments to a small number of deceased recipients usually because we have not yet received reports of their deaths."
The inspector general for the Social Security Administration has been performing an audit to make sure no checks went to ineligible recipients. The latest report was dated Sept. 24 but was just recently posted to the agency's website.
People were eligible for payments if they were getting benefits during any one of the three months before the law was passed in February 2009.
Dead people were ineligible to get the payments. But, the report said, there is no provision in the law to recover payments incorrectly sent to dead people.
"Based on the failure of the SSA to properly check its records, and Congress' failure to fully think through the provisions needed to govern these payments, SSA lost $22.3 million in American tax dollars," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "These findings are yet another example of congressional stupidity and a lack of accountability."
The Social Security Administration said that despite tight deadlines, workers accurately processed more than 99.8 percent of the 52 million stimulus payments.
"We worked with Treasury, developed new processes, and began issuing (payments) about 30 days earlier than the legislatively mandated deadline," the agency said in a written response included in the inspector general's report. "This was a major accomplishment for our agency."
The inspector general's report said that if similar payments are authorized in the future, prison inmates should be ineligible and the government should be able to recover payments made to dead people.
The Social Security Administration agreed with the recommendations.
Re: Stimulus checks sent to 72,000 dead people... I would think that people file each year but maybe they ger killed or die from some nature cause before they get their refund..if its for people that has bee dead for years will the state needs to check their ss number before they send the check out to see if they are dead.
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Re: Stimulus checks sent to 72,000 dead people... for the ones that were in prison maybe that had not been there that long and a wife/girlfrend was able to still claim them...you know that they never tell the rest of the story when they write things like this..
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Re: Stimulus checks sent to 72,000 dead people... So besides the prison people...who they hadn't excluded....
Most of these were probably people on social Security who had died. You can't really expect the government to anticipate that hey...we're sending this check out...don't die yet.
Heck when someone on SS dies...your supposed to send the rest of there SS check for the month back...this really isn't a new thing.
I don't see how it mentions that the SS checks to dead people (who basically died right before, or during the checks were coming out) had actually cashed those checks.
and ya wanna know...if the 66 year old gramps dies...and 2 days later his 59 year old wife receives a stimulus check and cashes the check...It really just doesn't ruffle my feathers that much.
It was meant to stimulate the economy...technically it did.
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Re: Stimulus checks sent to 72,000 dead people... Well for the SS check they have an entire formula set up so you know exactly how much to send back. So if he died on day 5 you send back 25 days worth of the SS.Originally Posted by jen276here
As for the stimulus...technically he was alive when it was sent out...and probably is gonna help bury the guy...doubt widow is gonna go load up on lobster, steak and mountain dew when her husband just died.
It just doesn't bother me that much. Now if someone had been getting SS on the sly...in the name of uncle bob who died 5 years ago...and got the stimulus check too..throw the book at them...but really throw the book at them for the SS fraud...kwim.
As for the checks to the guys in prison...sticky situation. It's not there fault they got sent a check...and I would think some of them were not there on a permanent/semi permanent basis...if they changed the rules so no one in prison could get a check...completely fine by me...but I wouldn't blame the guy who technically got the check legitimately in this exact situation.
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Re: Stimulus checks sent to 72,000 dead people... A clerical error that should have been fixed. Meh. Like Coriwesmom, it doesn't get me too upset. Honestly, I don't know why that makes front page news (um, well, yes I do, it's because it's intended to be a black mark on Obama's administration during election season) but Medicare fraud sits on the back burner unnoticed. Huge huge losses to the American taxpayer, and many administrations are to blame.
Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime - 60 Minutes - CBS News
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