Politics
GAO reports $186 billion in improper payments in FY2025. Since FY2019 the total exceeds $1.4 trillion. Nine of ten GAO recommendations to Congress from 2022 remain unimplemented as of April 2026.
NewsOnScale Staff
September 13, 2026
The Government Accountability Office reported in April 2026 that federal agencies identified $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2025. Since fiscal year 2003 the cumulative total has reached approximately $3 trillion. These are the federal government own documented figures reported by the GAO to Congress.
The Year by Year Record
FY2019: $175 billion. FY2020: $206 billion. FY2021: $281 billion. FY2022: $247 billion. FY2023: $236 billion. FY2024: $162 billion. FY2025: $186 billion.
The spike in FY2021 corresponds to emergency COVID-19 relief programs that distributed funds rapidly with reduced verification requirements. The subsequent decline reflects the winding down of those programs — not a fundamental improvement in payment integrity systems.
What Improper Payments Actually Are
The GAO defines improper payments as payments that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount. They include overpayments, payments to ineligible recipients, payments to deceased individuals, duplicate payments, and payments made without adequate documentation.
Seventy-five percent of improper payments are concentrated in five program areas: Medicare, Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, SNAP, and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Eighteen programs reported improper payment rates exceeding 10 percent. Six programs reported rates exceeding 20 percent.
Separately the GAO estimated that total direct annual financial losses from fraud specifically range between $233 billion and $521 billion annually based on fiscal year 2018 through 2022 data.
What Causes Improper Payments
The GAO has consistently identified the same root causes: identity and eligibility verification failures; data that does not cross agencies; inadequate risk assessments; and weak documentation requirements.
A death recorded in one system does not automatically update another. An agency issuing benefits has no reliable way to know the recipient died last year unless someone manually corrects the record — which often does not happen for months or years.
What Would Actually Fix It
Mandatory verification against the SSA Death Master File before issuing any federal benefit payment. The database exists and is updated weekly. The requirement to use it is not uniform and enforcement is inconsistent.
Cross-agency eligibility verification through a unified identity layer connecting federal and state benefit systems. When someone dies or loses eligibility that information should automatically propagate to every connected program.
Real time duplicate payment detection across programs.
None of these require new technology. They require mandates, enforcement, and political will.
The Governance Failure
The GAO has made recommendations to Congress and agencies for years. As of April 2026 nine of ten recommendations GAO made to Congress in March 2022 remain open and unimplemented.
$3 trillion since 2003. The agencies responsible have been aware of the problem for decades. Congress has received recommendations for decades. Nine of ten recommendations from 2022 alone remain unimplemented.
That is not a technology failure. It is a governance failure.
DISCLOSURE: NewsOnScale is an independent media publication operated by AMILLI AI CORP. JJ Johnson is the founder of AMILLI AI CORP and a declared candidate for President of the United States in 2028. All figures in this article are drawn directly from Government Accountability Office reports publicly available at gao.gov.