Welcome to Paymentaccuracy.gov

The purpose of this site is to increase the transparency of federal financial payment activities.  “Payment accuracy” rates and amounts presented on this site are presented by program.   This representation provides information concerning each reporting programs’ payment activities and provides the full picture of the payment challenges the Federal Government faces.  

This website presents a program-by-program focus, provides accurate measures of Federal Government performance, and the major reasons for any payment errors.  The most relevant laws, guidance documents, FAQs, helpful websites, and guidance on what an individual citizen can do to help prevent payment errors will continue to be on this site.  

The Improper Payments and Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 defines an “improper payment” as any payment that should not have been made or that was made in an incorrect amount under statutory, contractual, administrative, or other legally applicable requirements.

Expressed positively, a proper payment has four main attributes: right recipient, right amount, right reason, and right time.  A violation of any one of any attributes may result as an “improper payment” if an agency cannot document those conditions.  Furthermore, not all “improper payments” are the result of fraudulent actions or represent monetary loss to the government.

Examples of non-monetary losses to taxpayers:

• Instances where the right individual received the correct payment amount; however, the agency was unable to discern from the documentation that the payment was accurate.
• Underpayments.

Examples of monetary losses to taxpayers:

• Duplicate payments to eligible recipients.
• Payments made for goods or services not received.
• Payments made inappropriately to deceased individuals.

For FY 2017, we have seen improvements in the four programs with the highest payment error activity, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicare Fee for Service, Medicaid, and Medicare Part C for both monetary and non-monetary losses; however, in some cases these improvements were in the statistical margin of error and may not represent actual changes in losses.