Improper payments to deceased people cost the federal government and, by extension, taxpayers. This form of government waste could be reduced by giving all federal agencies access to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, which is the most up-to-date list of deaths in the U.S.
Not all federal agencies need access to complete death records in order to carry out their work. In the interest of preserving the privacy of the deceased and those close them, it’s best to restrict access to the Death Master File as much as possible.