WASHINGTON — President Trump’s IRS chief revealed that a scrub of the Social Security number database has found 10% of recipients were erroneously listed — and that some fraudsters bilking taxpayers for the benefits have since been referred to the DOJ for investigation.
IRS Commissioner Frank Bisignano told Steve Bannon on his “War Room” show that the payments amounted to as much as $30 million, though not all that money went out the door.
“We found over a 10% error rate,” Bisignano said. “They had a live Social Security number that could be used for fraud, waste and abuse.”
“They weren’t necessarily even collecting Social Security benefits, but they had a live Social Security [number] that was being used for other purposes throughout the government,” he added.
“Under Commissioner Bisignano’s leadership, SSA for the first time is reconciling our books and records, making sure the Social Security Number Database (Numident) is the most accurate count, in real-time, as possible,” a senior official close to SSA and IRS operations told The Post.
“This intakes data from births, from the Death Master File, from DHS [Department of Homeland Security] on non-citizens, and other sources, makes our payments more accurate and avoids fraud and other improper payments. With these controls, we’ve prevented $150 million in fraudulent losses since just last year.”
The work of reconciling the database is a large part of why the Treasury Department was able to halt nearly $100 million from going to deceased payees since March 2025.
That hadn’t been done since 1935, according to Bisignano, who claimed that the federal government has “been paying out money erroneously for a long time” to recipients — all of whom will now face probes by Treasury, or the Department of Justice when criminal charges are warranted.
“Any teeth we had we brought to the system,” he told Bannon. “We have cases completely being investigated right now as we speak.”
In the case of the dead recipients, the roughly $99 million in Social Security benefits has also since been recovered.
“Treasury has delivered on a key promise of President Trump’s mandate to stop improper payments and fraud before money leaves the Treasury, and strengthen the integrity of the federal payment system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Tuesday.
“Together with Vice President Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this new safeguard addresses a longstanding vulnerability and helps ensure every dollar the federal government spends reaches its intended recipient,” Bessent added. “Treasury will continue efforts to modernize the federal payment system, strengthen safeguards against fraud and improper payments, and protect taxpayer dollars.”
The money was recovered through the Treasury’s Do Not Pay program, which helps check recipients’ identities, eligibility and bank information before doling out the federal funds.
Access to the SSA’s so-called “Full Death Master File,” which was granted in a federal law passed in 2021, also helped with the process of reconciling deceased or improper payment recipients.
Trump also signed a law in February 2025 making the Treasury’s access to that file permanent.
Treasury officials have predicted that the various tools at their disposal will eventually recoup roughly $330 million in net benefits that had been improperly paid to deceased people.
