WASHINGTON — The U.S. government clawed back more than $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people, a recovery that one official said Wednesday was “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The money was reclaimed as part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave the Department of Treasury temporary access to the Social Security Administration’s “Full Death Master File” for three years as part of the omnibus appropriations bill in 2021. The SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who have died, and the file contains more than 142 million records, which go back to 1899, according to the Treasury.

Projected Recovery of $215 Million

The Treasury projects that it will recover more than $215 million during its three-year access period, which runs from December 2023 through 2026.

“These results are just the tip of the iceberg,” the Treasury’s Fiscal Assistant Secretary David Lebryk said in a news release. He urged Congress to give the Treasury full access to the master file, saying it would “significantly reduce fraud, improve program integrity, and better safeguard taxpayer dollars.”

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Efforts to Prevent Fraud and Waste

The effort has shown areas where the government is preventing fraud, waste and abuse — which is also one of Donald Trump’s campaign promises.

The president-elect has tapped two business titans — Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a new nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, all part of what Trump calls his “Save America” agenda for his second term in the White House.

A representative from the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the incoming administration would continue the efforts or seek to make the Treasury’s temporary access to the file permanent.