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$186 billion in one year: Paid out in error in fiscal 2025
Federal agencies sent out $186 billion in fiscal 2025 that they shouldn't have, or couldn't prove they should have.
64 federal programs
- Improper payments, FY2025$186B1
- Of that, overpayments$153B1
- Programs reporting64 at 15 agencies1
- Programs with error rates over 10%191
- Programs with error rates over 25%61
- Share in Medicare, Medicaid, EITC, SNAP and the Shuttered Venue grants73%1
- How much of it was fraud████████████████
What happened
Every year agencies estimate how much money went out the door wrong. For fiscal 2025 the total climbed to $186 billion, GAO reported in April 2026. $153 billion of it was overpayments.
Nearly three-quarters of it sat in five programs: Medicare, Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, SNAP food aid, and a pandemic grant for shuttered venues.
Why nobody caught it
- An improper payment can be fraud, an error, or a payment nobody can document. Agencies don't report how much is fraud.
- Some programs known to be at risk aren't in the total at all. GAO names Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as one that's left out.
How sure are we?
Officially counted as paid in error or without the records to prove it was right. Some is fraud. Nobody has measured how much.
The $186 billion is the government's own estimate. It is not all fraud. It is money paid without proof that it should have been.
Sources
- GAO reports improper payments rose to an estimated $186 billion in fiscal year 2025U.S. Government Accountability Office · Apr 27, 2026
- GAO-26-108694: improper payments government-wide, FY2025U.S. Government Accountability Office · Apr 2026
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