I found an article on CNN Money, written by Blake Ellis, on the internet which reported that thousands of people who were alive were reported dead. What? I could not find anything on Snopes.com to refute this claim. Further, my own Mother suffered at the hands of the good old SSA. And I will be suffering from them as well and at a time when I should be enjoying my retirement. Here is a synopsis of what was reported, which is followed by what happened to my own Mother, and my own thoughts.
Apparently, out of the 2.8 million people who are reported dead, about 14,000 of those reported are still alive. 14,000 people! What happens to you if you are included in that list of 14,000? You can lose your social security benefits, which can result in hardship for you, and your personal identifying information gets published in what is known as the “Death Master File.” It becomes public information.
Mr. Ellis reports that one woman stopped receiving her Social Security Disability payments due to this happening to her and this resulted more hardships for her than she was already experiencing due to her disability.
What hardships happened to her? Well, she ended up having her bank close her account as she was reported dead. She had to prove herself alive. Not only to the bank, but to the SSA. It took her months to be brought back to life. And, the SSA did not pay for the missed benefit checks, they just started them back up from when she was brought back to life.
Further, the SSA lost her file, and it took two years for all the information to be resurrected. Did the SSA apologize to her for making this mistake? No. The SSA, according to this article, stated that two months is too long to fix a situation such as this, but with the loss of her file, this took over two years to be fixed. Can you afford this kind of mistake?
It was reported that the SSA received false information, apparently some of it coming from funeral homes who reported the wrong social security number for someone recently deceased. Shouldn’t all the paperwork be double checked before going anywhere? How little this happens today in a world of get it done quick and don’t worry if the information is not correct for we can fix this later. Yes they can at the loss of two years worth of income to someone who does not have the wherewithal to survive this.
My mother, upon entering her retirement years, was 63 at the time, and she informed the SSA that she would be earning a small amount of money during her retirement: The total she reported would amount to $999.99 for the upcoming year. This of course was no where near the amount that would affect her social security benefits. Once the paperwork was filed, my Mother waited for her first check.
Did it come? No. Why you ask? Because someone entering her data at the SSA entered the amount as $99,999.00, instead of the $999.99. Whoops! How long did it take before my Mother was finally able to collect her social security check? Two whole years! Seems to be a magic number with these folks.
So, here I am sitting at my desk and writing this, still stunned from people being reported dead when they are not, and remembering what my Mother went through. I recently heard, and I am sure that you have too, that there is not enough money in the SSA for all the “baby boomers” who are either in retirement age or will shortly be reaching that stage of life.
To me, social security is money that I have contributed, my employer’s too, to a fund that is being held in trust for me for when I reach retirement age, which at that time, I get back with interest. I think that was at least what this was intended for. Will this happen for me? According to an article in the news as of August 22, 2011, the money will not be there for me.
How can this happen? Well, the government needed the money for something that they did not have the funds for so they borrowed from my retirement. Shame to those whose decision touched the retirement fund of millions! This decision was made by small group of 535 who do not pay into social security and who would not be affected by their decision. So, that is it in a nutshell. Who gave them permission to touch my retirement fund? I know that I didn’t. Did you?
Life in the Foothills 
Totally agree with PJ. We now have taxation without representation. Gee, didn’t that foster a revolution the last time it was realized that “royalty” was screwing its “vassals”? BTW, I think that social security employees are rewarded for “delaying” payments to people. Just like Caltrans employees are rewarded for creating gridlocks by standing around and slooooowly removing the cone zone. And they’re laughing at us, too. They are having fun. Don’t even get me started on the IRS. As an Enrolled Agent, I have so many stories that it boggles the mind.
Congress ask permission? – that’ll happen, yeah right! Sadly those that make the laws for the other 300 million residents of our country exempt themselves from those laws. So social security has no meaning for them, other than it is a pot of money they can gobble up for some pet project to get relected. If Congress had to pay into and collect Social Security upon their retirements then they would leave it alone. But, again, they exempt themselves. Congressmen and Congresswomen truly believe they are the “royalty” of this country, and that we the people should simply “eat cake”. And it does not matter if you or they are Republicans, Democrats, or even TEA Partiests, what they do affects you vastly, but not them. We are no longer a country of “for the people, by the people”. We have become a country of “what’s in it for me, and no one else matters”. All too sad!!