Federal pensions in the afterlife

The Office of Personnel Management Inspector General found more than 160 cases in which the government has paid federal pensions to the dead from January 2009 to March 2011, according to The Washington Times.

Federal employees and their spouses are eligible for pension payments, but when a beneficiary dies, a family member or a legal guardian must notify the OPM to stop payments. While collecting the improper payments is criminal, more than one-fourth of those cases were declined for prosecution, according to The Washington Times.