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Dead federal retirees are paid $120 million annually, report says
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: September 27th, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dead-federal-retirees...
The federal government pays out millions of dollars to dead people each year including deceased retired federal workers, according to a new report. In the past five years, the Office of Personnel Management has made more than $601 million in benefits payments to deceased federal annuitants, according to the agencys inspector general. Total annual payouts range between $100 million and $150 million. Improper payments to dead retirees increased 70 percent in the past five years, far higher than the 19 percent climb in overall annuity payments, the report said. In one case, a deceased annuitants son continued receiving federal benefits until 2008 37 years after his fathers death. OPM learned about the improper payments which exceeded $515,000 only after the son died. The agency never recovered the money. Overall, the governments improper payments totaled about $125 billion in fiscal 2010 a $15 billion year-to-year increase. Last October, an investigation by the office of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) concluded that the government had paid nearly $1 billion to at least 250,000 dead people since 2000.
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