Does the Social Security Administration know that you’re still alive?
It’s not a stupid question. Many people have been plagued with the task of bringing themselves back from the dead, just so they can receive the benefits they’ve waited for their whole lives.
If the Social Security Administration thinks you’re dead, you’re not allowed to claim Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, or any other retirement income/health benefits you’ve been waiting so long to take advantage of.
Follow these simple methods, and don’t let your financial future suffer because of a mistake some idiot made.
A Social Security representative claims that their records of the living and the dead are accurate 99% of the time.
That means that in over 3 million cases, they’re wrong! Even if they were to cut this figure in half, 1.5 million people would still be affected by this clerical error.
If you’re filed as deceased by the Social Security Administration, your Social Security number becomes invalid.
The restrictions placed on your Social Security number happen almost immediately after your death is filed, which means no credit cards, frozen bank accounts, no health care, no Social Security income, amongst many other life-changing things.
They’re so quick to lock down the accounts of the newly deceased because their Social Security numbers are a popular target for identity thieves, since they assume nobody will be monitoring or using it.
There have been many cases of this brought to the public. In some cases, the victims are denied medical coverage while in the hospital. This could then become an actual situation of life or death, simply because the Social Security Administration assumes you’re dead.
In one case, a three-year-old girl was denied medical assistance because she became a victim of the Administration’s incorrect filing.
The error has no age restrictions.
And, of course, it’s not something that can be fixed immediately. One victim was told that it’d take two business days to correct—which would’ve been just in time for her to receive her next Social Security check. Three months later: the process still wasn’t rectified.
She wasn’t allowed to renew her driver’s license or claim any of her retirement checks within those three months.
So, what can you do to prevent this arduous process of synthetic resurrection?
While this issue is 100% the fault of the Social Security Administration and their lack of competence, you can do a couple things to help prevent this from happening to you.
These include monitoring your bank accounts very closely to make sure there’s no unusual closures or activity, updating your driver’s license as frequently as needed, and hiring a credit monitoring service.
These Social Security errors are most likely to happen to those who have a lot of inactivity in their bank accounts or with the renewal of their driver’s license.
Staying on top of these will help maintain your living status when the Social Security Grim Reaper rolls around.
