Program Integrity Through Data Infrastructure: Options for Reducing Improper Payments

Executive Summary  

The federal government faces a persistent challenge of improper payments across programs, with over $162 billion in government-wide improper payments reported in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.¹ A significant portion of these improper payments stems from data verification issues. For instance, in FY 2024, an estimated $46.8 billion of improper payments was attributed to marital status, identity, and death data issues.² Enhanced data integration and program integrity infrastructure can help the federal government reduce these and other types of improper payments while maintaining accessibility and privacy.

Effective program integrity depends on timely, accurate, and interoperable data systems across federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Regularly using integrated data systems and modern verification technologies can help reduce improper payments across federal benefit programs. Without current death data, real-time employment verification, and standardized reporting from states, it remains difficult to prevent continued payments to deceased beneficiaries, detect unreported income changes, or identify duplicate benefit receipt across jurisdictions. Evidence-based program integrity infrastructure enables agencies to prevent improper payments before they occur rather than pushing costly recovery efforts after the fact.

Today, program integrity infrastructure remains fragmented across multiple databases, inconsistent state reporting systems, and manual verification processes that create opportunities for improper payments. The 2025 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on improper payments highlighted persistent data quality challenges, delayed information sharing, and insufficient integration of existing verification tools.³  These structural limitations prohibit effective improper payment prevention even when policymakers prioritize program integrity.

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Endnotes: 

1. U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). (2025). Improper Payments: Information on Agencies’ Fiscal Year 2024 Estimates. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107753

2. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Annual Improper Payments Datasets. (2025). https://www.paymentaccuracy.gov/payment-accuracy-thenumbers/

3. GAO, Improper Payments, 2025.