Government Mistakenly Declares Deaths of Citizens 361
superbrose writes "According to MSNBC, thousands of U.S. citizens have wrongfully been declared dead, due to an average of 35 data input errors per day by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Many other agencies rely on the data provided by the SSA, such as the IRS. People who have been wrongfully declared dead face many problems, such as rejection of tax returns, cancellation of health insurance, and closure of bank accounts. The article states, 'Input of an erroneous death entry can lead to benefit termination and result in financial hardship for a beneficiary.' Apparently it is far easier to declare a person's death than it is to correct the mistake. It continues, 'Social Security says an erroneous death record can be removed only when it is presented with proof that the original record was entered in error. The original error must be documented, and the deletion must be approved by a supervisor after "pertinent facts supporting reinstatement" are available in the system.'"
Logic suggests... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:wouldn't it be great? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't forget, being dead hasn't stopped candidates from winning, either! [wikipedia.org]
~Philly
Re:Ahh the data entry clerk (Score:4, Informative)
*That's* a bug in your ERP process. I've run projects that required large-scale, high-quality data entry. E.g., 600,000 French verb conjugations. Of the following factors:
- the extent to which the UI helps the clerk enter the data quickly and easily
- the extent to which intelligence can be and has been applied to detect errors in entered data via checks against other data sources and/or sanity checks, or to detect possible errors in entered data
- whether or not data was entered redundantly by multiple clerks and cross-checked
- how "wrong" the clerk was, that is, the overall error rate of the individual clerk
the latter was by far the least significant in every case.
That people type the wrong things sometimes is, for the most part, unavoidable. It's how you cope with that reality that makes the most difference.
In the case of the SSA, I'm surprised the false death rate is only 35 a year, I actually think that's an error rate to be proud of (out of 300,000,000 people in the US)
Re:Ahh the data entry clerk (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
The average daily mortality (Score:3, Informative)
The Average Daily Mortality in the U.S. for Victims of All Ages, 2002 [applet-magic.com] was 6706.
That implies an error rate of about 1/2 of 1%.
The mortality among adults under age 45 is much lower, of course, but still run about 3500 each week. In 1/5 of those cases, the cause of death may be most simply defined as "Other."
Bigger Problem Than You Think (Score:5, Informative)
This is a bigger problem than the post alludes to. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) put in to effect a new rule, called the "No-Match Rule" which requires an employer to terminate an employee when receiving a letter from the DHS or the Social Security Administration (SSA), that the new employee in question doesn't exist in the SSA database. There is a period of 90 days in which to contest the no-match rule but if you're not on top of things, your employer has to fire you.
Right now there is a stay on that rule ordered by a district court in California, but it goes to show you some small error can have big consequences. See AFL-CIO v. Chertoff, No. 07-4472 (N.D. Cal filed Aug. 29, 2007. Apparently the DHS is looking into revising the rule.
More here [aclu.org]
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:4, Informative)
How? If the database says you are dead, when someone scans the barcode it still says you are dead. Even if a government employee sees you appear to be alive and look like th eperson on the card, its going to take paper work and procedure to get that changed because often the people that you talk with (especially at the IRS) are not empowered to do anything of real value in this situation other than fill out a form.
Secondly, I know people who look like nothing like license card. They gained weight, dyed their, had surgery, are sick, etc etc and have grief going into a bar much less deal with the government.
Re:Even getting a job is nixed to (Score:3, Informative)
This reminds me of the problems with employers running criminal background checks on all applicants. I've known people personally who were denied offers because a record popped up in the search when they submitted a name to a background check agency. The record that popped up was, of course, someone who matched in name only; race, age, maiden name, and everything else didn't at all match. The location where it happened was over 2000 miles from their residence at the time. And to make it a little more ridiculous, it was a record of a simple misdemeanor; shoplifting $20 worth of clothes from a Belk.
It is of course, the applicants responsibility to verify these types of public records prior to seeking employment (when arguably they ought to be able to sue the background check agency for defamation instead). And now there's the problem of having to check whether the government even considers you alive.
What's worse is that now this reputable report will be circulated to the gullible. I can see this being circulated to people via e-mail with a spoofed link in it to "Make sure the government still has you listed correctly in their IRS database." All it would ask for is a few relevant details: name, birthday, address, SSN, bank account numbers, etc... No better way to sell a scam than to bank on paranoia.
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:simple solution.. just contact nobel prize winn (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pertinent facts? (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, the sensible approach would be to check the records upon complaint and verify that everything was indeed entered correctly. But since we're talking beaurocracy here they'll only do that if the complaint comes from the "deceased" themself because they can't go around correcting mistakes, actual or not, without proper identification.
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:3, Informative)
But they sometimes can't exercise their discretion...because of policy. I hate policy. It's a pain in the ass to work around.
Being declared Dead (Score:2, Informative)