Treasury Reports Major Progress in Preventing Fraud and Improper Payments | U.S. Department of the Treasury
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Treasury Reports Major Progress in Preventing Fraud and Improper Payments
October 6, 2026
Do Not Pay Reaches 99% of Federal Programs and New Safeguards Verify Over $3.7 Trillion in Payments
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service announced significant Fiscal Year 2026 results from Treasury’s efforts to prevent fraud and improper payments to better protect taxpayer dollars, fulfilling key requirements of Executive Order 14249 , Protecting America's Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse , issued by President Trump on March 25, 2025.
“Treasury continues to transform how the federal government protects taxpayer dollars by using better data, stronger controls, and advanced technology to stop fraud and improper payments before money goes out the door,” said Secretary Scott Bessent . “In the past year alone, Treasury built and deployed new safeguards that verified more than $3.7 trillion in federal payments and increased Do Not Pay access from 4 percent of programs to 99 percent, ensuring agencies have access to the data they need. We are moving beyond ‘pay and chase’ and making prevention the federal government’s first line of defense.”
Over the past year, Treasury streamlined access to Do Not Pay’s fraud prevention tools, added nine new data sources to the Do Not Pay program, and deployed a new government-wide payment verification process.
MORE THAN TWENTYFOLD INCREASE IN DO NOT PAY REACH
Treasury significantly expanded the reach and capabilities of the Do Not Pay program , which provides federal agencies and federally funded state-administered programs with data and tools to help verify identity and eligibility for the purpose of preventing fraud and improper payments.
During FY2026, Treasury:
Expanded Federal Programs’ Access to Do Not Pay Data by More Than Twentyfold. Approximately 99 percent of federal programs can now access all Do Not Pay data sources for which they are legally authorized, compared with approximately 4 percent at the end of FY2025. Most remaining programs are on track to complete onboarding in early FY2027. Treasury achieved this progress by streamlining the Do Not Pay onboarding process and partnering with federal agencies to accelerate the data-sharing and privacy compliance work necessary to expand access. All access to and use of Do Not Pay data is governed by strict privacy, security, and user access controls.
Screened Over 2.3 Billion Records Against Do Not Pay Data Sources , a nearly four-fold increase from the 641 million records screened in FY2025. The increase reflects expanded use of Do Not Pay across the federal government, the implementation of payment verification, and additional screenings conducted for states through the Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS).
Added Nine New Datasets , expanding the breadth and depth of information available to agencies for payment, identity, and eligibility screening. New sources include company registration information through OpenCorporates, select verification against the Social Security’s Numident data, and grantee audit findings from the Federal Audit Clearinghouse, among others.
MOVING FROM “PAY AND CHASE” TO PREVENTION AND VERIFICATION
Treasury also implemented a new payment verification process during FY2026, establishing additional safeguards to verify critical payment information before federal payments are disbursed. During the fiscal year, Treasury screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling approximately $3.7 trillion . Through these screenings, Treasury identified and returned approximately 13,500 payments totaling $175 million that would have gone to deceased individuals .
Treasury developed and implemented these safeguards in close collaboration with federal agencies, with controls designed to protect legitimate payments while ensuring payment data is used responsibly and securely.
Treasury piloted additional verification capabilities during FY2026 to validate bank account ownership and the presence and format of Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs) associated with federal payments. These capabilities became fully operational on September 30, 2026, enabling Treasury to identify and return payments that fail established verification requirements before funds are disbursed.
Together, these improvements provide agencies with earlier access to authoritative and high-value data, strengthening their ability to identify potential fraud and improper payments before awards are made and payments are issued. Treasury will continue working with federal agencies to expand the data available through Do Not Pay, strengthen payment verification capabilities, and further embed fraud prevention into government-wide payment and program integrity controls.
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