The U.S. Treasury Department says it has prevented roughly $175 million in improper federal payments from leaving the government’s accounts, largely by catching disbursements that would have gone to people who are deceased, according to reporting from Breitbart.
The savings, announced by the department on Tuesday, October 6, stem from a major expansion of the Do Not Pay program, a fraud-prevention tool that gives federal agencies and state-administered departments access to data and identity-verification services before payments are issued.
According to Treasury, the effort screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling approximately $3.7 trillion. Through those screenings, the department identified and returned roughly 13,500 payments totaling $175 million that would otherwise have been sent to deceased individuals.
A Shift Away From ‘Pay and Chase’
Treasury officials framed the results as the product of a broader philosophical change in how the government approaches fraud and improper payments — moving from what the department calls “pay and chase” to prevention and verification at the front end.
Secretary Scott Bessent described the shift in a statement, saying Treasury is “moving beyond ‘pay and chase’ and making prevention the federal government’s first line of defense.” Bessent added that the department is “using better data, stronger controls, and advanced technology to stop fraud and improper payments before money goes out the door.”
Under the expanded program, access to Do Not Pay data has grown dramatically. About 99 percent of federal programs can now use the data sources, up from just 4 percent a year ago. Treasury said the new additions increased the volume of data screened to roughly 20 times the previous amount, and most remaining programs are on track to finish onboarding in fiscal year 2027.
The department credited the push to a March 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at protecting what the order described as America’s bank account against fraud, waste, and abuse. The order directed the deployment of streamlined fraud-prevention tools and the addition of nine new data sources to the Do Not Pay program.
New Data Sources and Verification Tools
Among the changes Treasury implemented were an expansion of the breadth and depth of information available to agencies. New sources include company registration information through OpenCorporates and verification against Social Security data.
Treasury also piloted additional verification capabilities during fiscal year 2026 to validate bank account ownership and Taxpayer Identification Numbers associated with federal payments. Those capabilities were completed at the end of September, according to the department, allowing Treasury to identify and return payments that failed established verification requirements before funds are disbursed.
Treasury officials said access to and use of Do Not Pay data is governed by strict privacy, security, and user access controls.
The White House praised the results, with spokesperson Taylor Rogers telling Fox News that the administration is “setting new standards in record time to prevent fraud and improper payments before hard-earned taxpayer dollars leave the Treasury.” Rogers also said Trump “continues to deliver for Americans where previous administrations have fallen short.”
What the Numbers Show
The $175 million figure represents a tiny fraction of the $3.7 trillion in payments screened — less than one-hundredth of a percent by value. But Treasury’s argument is less about the raw dollar amount than about the mechanism: catching bad payments before they go out, rather than trying to recover them afterward.
The 13,500 blocked payments, all flagged as destined for deceased individuals, illustrate the specific failure mode the program is designed to address. Improper payments to the deceased have long been a source of frustration for watchdogs, since once money is disbursed to a deceased person’s account, recovering it can be difficult or impossible.
The Do Not Pay program’s expansion also raises the profile of the data infrastructure behind federal payments. By integrating sources like OpenCorporates and Social Security records, the program gives agencies a way to cross-check recipient identities and eligibility before a payment clears.
The department’s announcement did not break down the $175 million by agency or program, nor did it specify how much of the total was recovered versus never disbursed. Officials characterized all 13,500 payments as having been “returned” — meaning they were stopped before reaching their intended recipients.
With most remaining programs expected to complete onboarding in fiscal year 2027, the reach of the program could grow further. For now, Treasury is pointing to the expansion as evidence that its prevention-first approach is producing measurable results.
The broader political context is familiar: fraud and improper payments in federal programs have been a recurring target for both parties, though proposed remedies often differ sharply. The Trump administration has positioned the Do Not Pay expansion as part of its government-efficiency agenda, and the savings announcement gives it a concrete figure to cite.
Whether the $175 million in blocked payments represents a meaningful dent in overall improper payments — which independent estimates have put in the tens of billions annually — remains an open question. Treasury’s focus, for now, is on the 99 percent access figure and the 20-fold increase in screened data as markers of how far the program has come in a single year.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/10/07/treasurys-do-not-pay-fraud-prevention-effort-saves-175-million/