More than $1 billion in U.S. coronavirus relief payments were sent out to deceased people, the Government Accountability Office found.
A total of $1.4 billion was sent to more than a million dead people in payments based on their most recent tax returns, the agency said in a Thursday report to Congress. Now, their families are being told they cannot cash the checks for themselves and that they should return them to the IRS.
In the rush to deliver financial relief to millions struggling under COVID-19 restrictions and closures, the GAO reported that the Treasury Department and the IRS failed to check the first three batches of payments against the death records maintained by the Social Security Administration, as is typical. The GAO also noted that the IRS currently does not have a plan to notify ineligible recipients, including relatives of the deceased.
[Click here for complete coronavirus coverage]
The findings are part of a wide investigation the GAO is conducting into how the government chose to dispense stimulus funds during the coronavirus pandemic.
Congress passed the CARES Act in March, agreeing to spend $2 trillion in COVID-19 relief. Other relief packages have been proposed, including the $3 trillion HEROES Act, passed by the House in May. The Senate has yet to vote on the bill, but President Trump has indicated that he is open to sending more stimulus relief to the American people.
