IRS staff members knew ahead of time that some of the individual payments for pandemic relief would go to the deceased. It's because of how timely, or untimely, the vital records data comes in from Social Security. There are other ways to verify people's eligibility for government benefits. For more, the vice president of strategic alliances at Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions, Matt Harcourt.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices