The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced results from its fraud prevention efforts in fiscal year 2026, reporting the identification and prevention of approximately 13,500 fraudulent payments totaling $175 million that would have gone to deceased individuals. The results fulfilled requirements in Executive Order 14249, issued by President Trump on March 25, 2025, directing protection of federal funds against fraud and waste.
During the fiscal year, the Treasury screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling approximately $3.7 trillion through a new payment verification process that validates critical payment information before funds are disbursed.
The Treasury significantly expanded its Do Not Pay program, which provides federal agencies with data and tools to verify identity and eligibility for benefits and payments. Access expanded from approximately 4 percent of federal programs at the end of fiscal 2025 to approximately 99 percent during fiscal 2026. The program screened over 2.3 billion records against Do Not Pay data sources during the fiscal year, a nearly fourfold increase from 641 million records screened in fiscal 2025.
The Treasury added nine new datasets to Do Not Pay's information sources, including company registration information through OpenCorporates, verification against Social Security's Numident data, and grantee audit findings from the Federal Audit Clearinghouse. During fiscal 2026, the Treasury also completed rollout of capabilities to validate bank account ownership and the format of Taxpayer Identification Numbers associated with federal payments.
According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the expansion moved the government "beyond 'pay and chase'" toward prevention. "Treasury continues to transform how the federal government protects taxpayer dollars by using better data, stronger controls, and advanced technology to stop fraud and improper payments before money goes out the door," Bessent said.