14,000 People Wrongly Declared Dead Yearly

[tawadi]

Source: CNNMoney

14,000 People Wrongly Declared Dead Yearly
Social Security Admin. Averages 38 Life-Altering Mistakes Per Day

By SportsDirect

POSTED: 3:22 am MDT August 17, 2011
UPDATED: 1:39 pm MDT August 17, 2011

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- More Americans are being erroneously killed off by the Social Security Administration every day.

Of the approximately 2.8 million death reports the Social Security Administration receives per year, about 14,000 -- or one in every 200 deaths -- are incorrectly entered into its Death Master File, which contains the Social Security numbers, names, birth dates, death dates, zip codes and last-known residences of more than 87 million deceased Americans. That averages out to 38 life-altering mistakes a day.

While these errors occur online, in the depths of the administration's database, they have a very real impact on the people who have effectively been declared dead.

Read more: http://www.koat.com/nationalnews/28889435/detail.html

---

Incredible.

:sarcasm:

[underpants]

1. Clearly this is Obama's fault

he is supposed to be standing over the service night and day to check every single name that is reported as dead and then investigate each and every one

:sarcasm:

[Akoto]

2. It's his death panel!!1! They're declaring us dead!

[sakabatou]

3. Especially with those death panels of his

:sarcasm:

Dammit, Akoto, you beat me to it.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Why does Monty Python come to mind?

Bring out your dead!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

[nolabear]

7. 'E's not dead. 'E's pinin' for the fjords.

Actually quite a bit of gov't in general resembles a Monty Python sketch.

[w0nderer]

9. they aren't dead, they're pining...for the fjords n/t

[bluedigger]

5. I'm not so sure that would be a bad thing, necessarily.

:hide:

[PuffedMica]

6. Then the "dead" people change their party affiliation to Republican and continue voting for 50 years

[Turbineguy]

8. That's OK

If Bachmann or Perry get in, they'll be behind real quick so it all balances out.

[chollybocker]

10. "Reports of (my) death are greatly exaggerated."

- Mark Twain. :)

[Ian David]

11. All In The family - Archie and the Computer

All In The family - Archie and the Computer
When Edith writes for a free quarter from a prune company, she begins to receive a small fortune daily. Mike believes it is just a computer error, which Archie feels is their problem. That is, until Edith receives a notice that Archie has been declared dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImRUDpELnkE

[Delarage]

12. Can't anyone take a pulse? n.t.

[ashling]

13. Signals from the Grave

http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/life/life.htm

Early patents for detecting life in buried persons

[tabasco]

14. I wish they'd declare me dead

and stop sending me bills.

[Myrina]

22. NO SHIT!!

That was my first thought, too!!

[dflprincess]

15. My brother was on SS disability

when he died I discovered that all you have to do is call Social Security and report the person dead to get their benefits stopped. You only need a few pieces of personal information about the departed and their SS# to convince the SS clerk that you are legit. They only require a death certificate if the estate is due a payment.

I wonder how many people get declared dead because they pissed someone else off and that person decided to really screw with them.

However, if you get caught you'll be in major trouble, but what are odds they'll find out who did it? They asked for my name and relationship to the person I was reporting on but they never asked for my SS# to see if I was giving them my real name.

[Historic NY]

16. Could you prove your alive?

:scared:

[Ready4Change]

17. I really need to get off the couch more often.

That'd be one less mistake a year.

:)

[customerserviceguy]

18. Anybody wonder

why I doubt that I'm going to get a dime from this thing?

[slackmaster]

19. I FEEL HAPPY, OH SO HAPPY! whack

[eppur_se_muova]

20. ZOMG!!1! You mean they're right ONLY 99.5% of the time ?!?

Surely no other organization that processes millions of reports every year would EVER have such an APPALLING record !1!

I mean, just look at the banks! They don't make mistakes like this! Or the insurance companies! Argle bargle blargh!

[Tracer]

21. I'm one of those 14,000!

A few years ago, I got a call from a very hesitant-sounding person who asked if "------" was at home. When I said that was me, she let out a huge sigh of relief.

Turns out that I had been declared dead and payments to my doctor and my SS checks had been cancelled.

The reason? A wrong letter on my Medicare identification card that identified me as a railroad worker from years past.

I had to appear in person at the SS office with all kinds of identification to prove that I was still alive.

The people there were extremely apologetic.