CSRS or FERS improper annuity payments can sometimes continue for years going undetected. Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe federal retirement system made nearly $244 million in improper payments during 2024 that “often are from fraud, waste, or abuse,” an OPM inspector general report has said, adding that “the most common causes of improper payments are related to annuitant deaths that are unreported or unknown to OPM.
“These unreported deaths may allow payments to continue because of program vulnerabilities or intentional fraud on the part of bad actors. Sometimes, CSRS or FERS improper annuity payments continue for years and amount to tens of thousands of dollars before discovery,” it said.
It cited as recent examples:
* a consent judgment in which some $150,000 is to be returned to the government for payments received by an adult child of an annuitant for five years following the annuitant’s death until the death was discovered by a match with Social Security records;
* a similar case involving a recovery of nearly $88,000 paid for three years after an annuitant’s death, discovered in a cross-check with the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay database; and
* a third involving more than $200,000 in overpayments over three years after an annuitant’s death, of which $128,000 is to be recovered.
“Fraud by forged documents (such as OPM’s Address Verification Letters to annuitants), identity theft, and other schemes are common harms,” the report added.
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