The IRS sent stimulus checks to more than 1 million people who had died because it initially believed it did not have the legal authority to withhold them, according to an independent watchdog.

The administration later reversed itself, and began trying to block payments going to the dead while asking survivors to return those that did slip through, the Government Accountability Office said in an analysis released Thursday.

The report does not say what prompted the agency to reverse course, when it decided to change direction or who made the decision.

More than 1 million deceased Americans received stimulus payments totaling over $1 billion, according to a government watchdog agency in a report released to Congress on Thursday.

The payments were granted under the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help tide Americans over as the pandemic ripped through the country and forced the economy to a halt. The payments totaled as much as $1,200 to individual taxpayers and $2,400 for married couples filing jointly. The government granted an additional $500 per qualifying child under the age of 17.

The Internal Revenue Service sent out 1.1 million stimulus checks to dead people totaling $1.4 billion, according to a new report from a government watchdog agency.

As the IRS hurried to process direct payments to Americans reeling from the coronavirus outbreak, the Government Accountability Office said the tax agency didn’t use Social Security death records to filter out payments to the deceased.