Photo (Courtesy) http://thepage.time.com/2010/06/18/cut-it-out/
Last Updated: June 19. 2010 4:42PM
Feds to get 'don't pay' list of dead
Mark S. Smith / Associated Press
Washington -- Here's an idea, Uncle Sam: Stop writing checks to dead people.
The government sent benefit checks to 20,000 departed Americans over three years, totaling more than $180 million -- a remarkable number that provoked the Obama administration to create a governmentwide "do not pay" list as part of its brainstorming for ways to save taxpayer money.
Once the database is up and running, agencies will have to search it before sending out payments. A precheck check, so to speak.
"We're making sure that payments no longer go to the deceased -- it sounds ridiculous even to say it," said Vice President Joe Biden in describing the database.
Also planned for inclusion: contractors who have fallen behind in their payments or, even worse, landed in jail, and companies that have been suspended or otherwise deemed ineligible for government work.
"This stuff seems obvious on its face," Biden said. "The voters will go, 'My God, isn't that happening already?' "
In fact, the Social Security Administration does have what it calls a "Death Master File." But some other agencies don't routinely check it before issuing benefits.
An order signed by President Barack Obama on Friday would centralize the information from numerous sources.
The figures on payments to the deceased come courtesy of the White House Office of Management and Budget, which also says checks went to 14,000 convicted felons, both in jail and still on the lam. The three-year total there: $230 million.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100619/NATION/6190329/1020/rss09#ixzz0rOmRjId0
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