Tag: dead people

The IRS is sending $1,200 stimulus checks to dead people

Via Marketwatch

More than 80 million Americans are expected to get their stimulus money this week, according to the Treasury Department

Many Americans are eagerly anticipating stimulus checks of up to $1,200 starting this week, but in a few cases the recipients won’t be celebrating — because they’re dead.

The IRS began distributing $290 billion in direct cash payments within the past week as part of a $2 trillion CARES Act stimulus bill, and anecdotes are already surfacing about the IRS issuing money to the deceased.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, said Wednesday a friend texted him to say his father, dead since 2018, had just received his $1,200 in stimulus money.

Continue reading “The IRS is sending $1,200 stimulus checks to dead people”

I PAY DEAD PEOPLE

These dumb people elect even dumber people, who then hire even dumber people to run our government. These dumb people then pay dead people. And dumb people think more government control is a good thing.

Hat tip Boston Bob

$12 Million Paid to DEAD People in Illinois Medicaid

social security dead

Politicians wonder why we want accountability for our money, well when a state pays $12 million to DEAD PEOPLE, it does raise a few flags.

According to this report, the Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated $12 million for medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records, according to an internal state government memo. Auditors identified overpayments for services to roughly 2,900 people after the date of their deaths.

This is just one state and one program. Just imagine this happening in 50 states and with multiple government-run programs and you begin to get a glimpse of the picture.

Here is a report from CNN:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services doled out $23 million in benefits to 17,403 deceased beneficiaries in 2011, a new inspector general’s audit. The audit was done by cross-referencing Medicare recipients with Social Security death records from 2009 to 2011.

But it gets worse, as at least these deceased were citizens. As seen here, the Fed is not averse to paying those here illegally.

Another $29 million in Medicare benefits went to recipients who were living in the United States illegally, according to a separate audit from 2009 to 2011, also issued this week.

I’m sure the Left can justify the payments. After all, these same people voted for Obama and other Democrats in the last election.

DYING FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

The Federal government certainly is a well oiled machine. Do they ever do anything right? They can’t figure out they have been paying a dead person for 23 years? All you Boomers should be happy. You’re going to get your Social Security payments even after you die. So stop bitching.

And now we are handing over our healthcare to these government drones. What could possibly go wrong?

NOTHING TO CUT: Meet the Multi-Millionaire Who Collected His Dead Mom’s Social Security Checks for 23 Years

Guest post by Laura Trueman

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/
The 2014 omnibus bill contains an increase in funding for running the Social Security Administration (SSA). Maybe now they can stop paying Social Security benefits to dead people.

According to a December Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, SSA systems do not accurately note and confirm the deaths of beneficiaries, resulting in payments being made to dead people—sometimes for decades. The flawed system doesn’t just impact Social Security payments, either. Multiple other federal agencies that pay benefits—from federal pensions to payments to farmers and the disabled—rely on SSA’s flawed death data.Collecting Dead Mother’s Social Security for 23 Years. Raymond O’Dell made news this week when he was sentenced for collecting his dead mother’s Social Security benefits for 23 years. O’Dell collected $188,000 in benefits, while building a successful Taco Bell franchise. His accountant put his net worth at $4 million (including $431,000 in cash). This week, he was sentenced to pay back the benefits, along with a $20,000 fine, and will serve six months in prison.

O’Dell is not unique. In Washington state, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan convicted five people for collecting a dead parent’s Social Security benefits. One man personally disposed of his mother’s body in a rural area and never reported her death; he collected her benefits for 9 years. More examples are cited in the SSA’s “Deceased Payee Fraud; Strange But True,” released this month.

As Durkan noted, “Cheaters shred the safety net for those that really need it…and need to know prison and hefty fines wait at the end of the scheme.” The SSA has the Office of Inspector General Fraud Hotline for reporting suspected fraud. That’s good, but it isn’t enough.

Getting a Handle on the Problem. The SSA receives and processes death reports from a variety of sources, including states, family members, funeral directors, post offices, financial institutions, and other federal agencies. It’s a big job: In 2012, seven million deaths were reported to the SSA; overall, they manage the death records for some 98 million people.

The GAO reports that the agency does not verify the death reports from all of its sources. The SSA has no clue how accurate the unverified reports are because, according to the GAO, the agency has “never performed an analysis validating the accuracy of the various sources of death reports.”

The GAO checked on a random sample of the SSA’s death reports and found problems:

  • Notice of about 500 deaths came to the SSA long after the person’s death; in fact 200 were 10 or more years after the fact, meaning that all kinds of benefits could have been flowing unchecked for years.
  • Another 150 people were apparently engaged in “back to the future” time travel—their date of death was BEFORE their date of birth.
  • Almost 2000 broke or nearly broke Guinness records—living between 115 and 195 years.

The GAO made some recommendations on how to improve the SSA systems, and maybe things will improve. It should be noted that, while the GAO focused on the SSA’s struggles with the death reports it received, Raymond O’Dell and a slew of others kept their relative’s death from being reported.

In the omnibus appropriations Congress passed this week, they offered their usual solution—more money—increasing the agency’s budget by $651 million. Oklahoma’s Senator Tom Coburn (R) and a few others are pushing the SSA to fix this and other fraud in benefit programs. As The Wall Street Journal notes, these members “are voices crying in the wilderness” as Congress focuses on spending more money, not making existing agencies and programs work better.
Read more at The Foundry.