Federal Government Improper Payments Tick Down in 2023, Still Tally $236 Billion: GAO
The federal government made an estimated $236 billion in “improper payments” in fiscal year (FY) 2023, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found that improper payments were made by 14 agencies across 71 programs in FY 2023.
Improper payments can be caused by a myriad of factors including inaccurate recordkeeping, overpayments, and fraud.
The $236 billion is down $11 billion from the improper payments made in FY 2022, but still above pre-pandemic levels.
However, the FY 2023 number also “does not include some programs that agencies have determined are susceptible to significant improper payments.”
GAO found that in FY 2023:
More than $175 billion (74%) of errors were overpayments—for example, payments to deceased individuals or those no longer eligible for government programs
$11.5 billion were underpayments
$44.6 billion were unknown payments—meaning it is unclear whether a payment was an error or not
$4.6 billion were cases where a recipient was entitled to a payment, but the payment failed to follow proper statutes or regulations
Eight program areas saw substantial declines in improper payments, while five programs saw substantial increases.
Five Program Areas in Focus
Nearly 80 percent of the errors were concentrated in five areas: the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Medicare and Medicaid programs; the Department of Labor’s (DOL) federal pandemic unemployment assistance; the Department of Treasury’s Earned Income Tax Credit; and the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness.
DOL’s pandemic unemployment assistance program saw a spike in improper payments to $44 billion in erroneous payments.
Medicare posted $51.1 billion in improper payments, the most in the year among a single program.
Payment mistakes under Medicaid dropped $30 billion, but still totaled more than $50 billion. GAO attributed the improvement to more stringent payment reviews and better compliance.
GAO repeated its recommendations that agencies improve monitoring, communication, and planning to identify risk.
GAO is once again asking Congress to help agencies identify susceptible programs, develop reliable methods for estimating errors, and implementing effective action.
The report did grab the attention of those on the Hill, including the Co-Heads of the Improper Payments Working Group.
“This systemic mismanagement and waste of taxpayer dollars must be addressed. Our Improper Payments Working Group will continue to identify ways to address improper payments and ensure the federal government better stewards Americans’ hard-earned money,” said Representative James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Committee and co-head of the Improper Payments Working Group.
Since 2003, cumulative improper payments have totaled $2.7 trillion.
