US returns $1.4 billion in unspent pandemic relief funds to treasury

Approximately $1.4 billion in unspent funds allocated by the US government in 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have been returned to the treasury.

“As of Friday, $4.3B of COVID era funds remained unused and mostly dormant. Thanks to the work of Secretary LCD [secretary of labour] and Sonderling [deputy secretary of labour], $1.4B was recovered and returned directly to the Treasury general account, and team is moving urgently to return the remaining $2.9B. This had been pointed out in a 2023 IG report, and action is now being taken,” Caliber.Az reports, citing the US Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) message on X.

Moreover, DOGE, led by Elon Musk, successfully removed 10 million individual social security numbers from the system, belonging to individuals over the age of 120. 

“For the past 4 weeks, Social Security has been executing a major cleanup of their records. Approximately 9.9 million number holders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked deceased. Another 2 million to go. For the past 3 weeks, Social Security has been executing a major cleanup of their records. Approximately 7 million number holders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked as deceased. Another 5 million to go,” DOGE wrote on X.

Earlier, Elon Musk pointed out the records in the social security system for individuals aged 120 to 369 who had long since passed away but were still officially listed as alive.

Musk humorously referred to these deceased individuals as "vampires".

In the past month, 10 million such records were removed.

DOGE also added that administrators of the social security system need to update the information for an additional 2 million individuals, who are likely also deceased.

By Naila Huseynova