According to the way the government is currently being run, you don’t have to be alive to get student aid!
On Monday, Newsweek reported the following:
The U.S. Department of Education revealed that over $30 million in federal student aid had been distributed to thousands of deceased individuals during the past three years.
The disclosure followed an internal cross-check of student aid records against federal grant logs and the Social Security Death Index.
How uncomplicated was that, and why hasn’t it been done before?
The article notes:
The discovery of erroneous payments totaling over $30 million to deceased individuals raises significant concerns about the integrity of federal financial aid programs, which are funded by U.S. taxpayers.
President Donald Trump‘s administration has been emphasizing the amount of money the government is wasting and has been trying to eliminate unnecessary expenses.
I realize that in terms of the national debt, $30 million is a drop in the bucket, but how many $30 million drops in the bucket are there?
The article reports that the Department of Education is “working toward a solution:”
The Department of Education has committed to further technological upgrades and ongoing collaboration with the SSA to prevent improper payments to deceased or otherwise ineligible individuals. Updates to oversight and data-sharing mechanisms are expected to be implemented over the next fiscal year.
Because the Trump administration has prioritized cutting out waste and fraud, there will likely be increased focus on this type of federal government mismanagement of funds moving forward, Thompson said.
“This will have very little impact on the Education Department, as the error rate was relatively insignificant,” Thompson said. “In the long run, however, this will likely be politicized as an example of fraud and waste in the system, rather than recognized as a success due to the high approval and completion rates.”
This should have been done a long time ago! Waste and fraud in any amount in NOT acceptable!