Wait! I ain’t dead yet
Brooklyn Bernard never expected to receive a notice that she was dead. But the Nashville, Tennessee woman says a Social Security mistake declaring her deceased led to a host of financial difficulties and made her bank card impossible to use. Bernard originally received the disturbing notice at the beginning of the month from Estate Information Services. “It said we are sending condolences to the Estate of Brooklyn Bernard, and telling my estate how they could pay off a debt I owed,” she told local station WSMV 4. Bernard wanted to ignore it at first, believing it might be a scam. But instead, she called the number and paid off her bill. Weeks later, another sign of trouble hit: her bank card was denied at a Walmart. “I was like, that’s odd, this never happens,” Bernard said. Then a dreadful email made its way into her inbox, and it confirmed what seemed impossible: she had been declared legally dead.
Brooklyn then called the customer service department for her bank, but they kept transferring her to different people until someone finally revealed the Social Security Administration had made the declaration. “I just thought it was a mistake that was cleared up and done when I paid that first bill,” Bernard said. “So, how can this be happening? Because yeah, I am alive and breathing.” Due to the error, Bernard’s credit card and bank account had been closed, and she couldn’t access any of her money. This forced her to rely on family and friends to pay even her most basic needs, like rent. Feeding her daughter suddenly became unclear:
Many questions remained. How would Bernard be able to cash paychecks from her job? What had happened to her student loans? “It’s a lot, having a seven-year-old daughter to take care of,” she said. “I had moments where I’d just cry, and the emotional part of it, I don’t think people understand unless they actually been through it.” According to the Social Security Advisory Board, up to 12,000 people are mistakenly declared deceased by the agency each year. She Evans has called everyone to get the issue fixed with no luck. She has driven her to the Social Security Administration’s office to address the issue — five times. “We went to Social Security and I asked the lady, ‘How did this happen?’ And, she said, ‘Well, I guess an employee just hit the wrong button,'”
“It’s really the worst-case scenario financially, and the saddest part is it isn’t the person affected’s fault,” Alex Beene told Newsweek. “Being mistakenly declared dead can have a ripple effect that causes complications among multiple government agencies, as the Social Security Administration has a master file of those declared dead, and it’s difficult to get off that list due to there being very few errors each year with it.” Once in the SSA’s Death Master File, all government benefits typically end, and bank accounts and credit cards are immediately closed. People facing this mistake also lose their health insurance and can no longer file taxes. “In our data-driven era, we cannot blindly entrust our financial lives and identities to computer systems without zealous oversight,” Ryan told Newsweek. “There are no substitutes for diligence when an erroneous declaration of death can open the floodgates to monetary and legal chaos.”
“Oh! “We got a nice thank-you letter from Social Security, saying they’re sorry they did this. We apologize.'”
Social insecurity
A month ago, someone stole my identity.
Last week he mailed my license and social security card back, along with a five dollar bill.
Computers make very fast, very accurate mistakes.
Ready for a COVID-19 Silver Lining?
I might actually get social security.
Contrary to popular belief, Wikipedia actually has less factual errors than traditional printed encyclopedias.
Source: Wikipedia
January 10th Birthdays
1953 – Pat Benatar, 1961 – Janet Jones-Gretzky, 1989 – Zuria Vega, 1986 – Saleisha Stowers
1949 – George Foreman, 1974 – Hrishik Rothan, 1945 – Rod Stewart, 1953 – Bobby Rahal