Social Security Database Added to Treasury’s Fraud-checking System

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Social Security database added to Treasury’s fraud-checking system
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One-liner
"The Numident decision comes on the heels of a three-year pilot program."
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Venue
Report Excerpt

The [Treasury] department said in a post to the Federal Register on Friday that SSA’s Numident database — which houses the records of every person who has been assigned a Social Security number — would be available through Treasury’s Do Not Pay system “effective immediately.”

Treasury’s determination to make Numident data available to Do Not Pay users came at the conclusion of a two-month comment period; the agency said it received “three responsive comments on the proposed designation.”

“The commenters all expressed support for the use of SSA’s Numident to strengthen the integrity of Federal funds disbursements in health or income maintenance programs,” the post said.

Numident data will only be available to verify names, Social Security numbers, and the dates of birth for people seeking payments or awards via health or income programs with federal funding, according to Treasury.

The Numident decision comes on the heels of a three-year pilot program that provided Do Not Pay users with access to the SSA’s Death Master File. The Government Accountability Office said in a February report that the program saved millions, and President Donald Trump signed a law to permanently authorize SSA to share its death data with Treasury.

At the Treasury Department, meanwhile, Do Not Pay has long been touted as a major success in fighting waste, fraud and abuse. According to the agency, Do Not Pay helped agencies “prevent, detect, and recover” $11.7 billion in potential fraud and improper payments in fiscal 2025 alone.

Justin Marsico, assistant commissioner for fraud prevention and financial integrity at the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Service, said during a January FedInsider webinar that the agency was engaged in “a lot of administrative work” to acquire more datasets.

Databases and Systems (Government)

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