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.'"
Even getting a job is nixed to (Score:4, Interesting)
Not saying verification is wrong, but there needs to be some leeway for 'mistakes' like this.
simple solution.. just contact nobel prize winner (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lal_Bihari [wikipedia.org]
He founded the Association of the Dead
Re:Another one? Give me a break! (Score:2, Interesting)
What should have been. (Score:1, Interesting)
The SSA Sells a List of Dead SSNs through NTIS (Score:2, Interesting)
This is great news! (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the most effective way to live "off the grid!" No more taxes, etc.
Think of the legal implications.
Its against the law to "mistreat" a dead body. So, no death penalty for someone declared dead. Also, since you're dead, they can't stick you in a jail cell (the state won't to pay to jail a dead person, and other detainees would have a good complaint, cruel and unusual punishment and all that). Heck, they can't even put the cuffs on you without running afoul of the requirement to treat a dead body with all due respect and dignity .... someone should take this and really run with it.
Of course, there's the downside. No more sex, since necrophilia is also against the law ...
Re:Err, shouldn't the proof be right there? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You can't fix death... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I think they do have a procedure for it. It's just that having a procedure for something doesn't imply that the procedure works.
Re:Err, shouldn't the proof be right there? (Score:2, Interesting)
Bureaucracy (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in a two family house. I moved from the first floor to the second floor. In the phone junction box, I just swapped the wires. I figured no problem. I called the phone company to tell them what I did (In the form of "I was about to do") and they said, no you can't do that. They have to send a technician to the pole in front of the house to change the wires and change their computer records, of course, there was a service fee involved.
I was pissed off, then it occurred to me, I called the phone company again to say that they had made a mistake and the phone lines had been wrongly addressed and would they please update the computer records for 911 service. The answer was O.K. Mr
Moral of the story, a "mistake" is easily corrected when it isn't merely "you," but another bureaucracy that has an importance. In the case of the phone records, it was 911 service. Screw that up, and there is civil liability involved. In the case of the SSI, I bet they'd adjust those records quickly if you said you were having problems paying your income tax and should you just refer the IRS to them?
Life Insurance (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What should have been. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:4, Interesting)
This guy had a false death certificate [di2.nu] submitted for his name and is still having problems with it. He finally was able to get his accounts unfrozen, his marriage official, and a new ID card, but only after months of calls and visits to UK ID agency. To this day with his son, he still gets letters of "fraud detection" whenever they try to do something that piggy-backs on the ID system.
Google cache [64.233.169.104] as main page isn't currently loading for me.
Re:Err, shouldn't the proof be right there? (Score:5, Interesting)
That would actually require that someone analyze the results and make a judgment call. The SSA doesn't hire data entry operators that can make those decisions.
The solution is the same as what was used years ago in the punch card era: every input is performed twice. After the first data entry operator entered the data on a set of punch cards, the deck of cards went to a second operator who would duplicate the data entry in "verify" mode. Any discrepancies would sound a buzzer, and the second operator would have to stop and re-enter the data or create a new card with the correction.
Today, it wouldn't be difficult to simply assign the data to two different data entry operators and then compare the results -- flagging any differences for review.
However, that won't solve the problem of incorrect incoming data. Requiring input (and verification) of additional details like name, age, etc. would allow those to be validated against existing records, spitting out exceptions for review.
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Life Insurance (Score:-1, Interesting)
Re:This is great news! (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, your legal existence doen't terminate when you're legally dead. Example - your will is still valid.
Another example: Some states have a long history of dead people voting. For many, its a family tradition. "Take away my right to vote? Over my dead body! My dead grandpa voted ___ and so did my dead father, and so will I!"
Re:Even getting a job is nixed to (Score:3, Interesting)
Walk in as a female to an interview and get the offer pending a 'background check', but your records says you are male, not only wont you get the job, but you may get a visit by the FBI thinking you have stolen someone's ID.
Even marriage and a simple last name change can stick it to you if you don't have all your records in sync.
Re:What should have been. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:5, Interesting)
I would hope that if I was marked as being dead someone could look at my birth certificate, and see that yes I'm about the right age. Then look at my state id, and check the photo and biometric information if available. And I assume a layperson is able to make the judgment that someone is alive when they are physically moving and talking to them.
This is why I hate governments, so much fricken paperwork. My friend was accidentally assigned the same SSN as another person that was born on the same day and had the same name as him. He didn't find out until he had to get a background check for a job and found that the other guy has some felony arrests on his record.
Re:Ahh the data entry clerk (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What should have been. (Score:5, Interesting)
The German ID card, for example, has a 26-character alphanumeric string that features no less than four checksums:
The first nine digits contain information about your main domicile and a serial number. The tenth digit is the checksum for them. The block ends with a single character identifying your citizenship (AFAIK it's always "D").
The next seven digits are your date of birth in the format YYMMDD and a checksum for the DOB.
The next seven digits are the expiration date for the ID card in the same format and a checksum for them.
The last digit is a checksum for all preceding digits.
That way a simple error is likely to be noticed and the software could even tell you which part was entered incorrectly.
Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity? (Score:3, Interesting)
no shop clerk has ever, ever, actually compared my signature with the one on my card.
Nor are they even vaguely qualified to do so. No two signatires from the same person are exactly the same. Some vary considerably even to the untrained eye. Sufficient analysis to determine the genuinness of a signature will cost more than the value of most transactions. In truth, signatures are pretty much worthless for authentication.
Photos are more useful since the brain has dedicated areas for recognizing faces, but that can be fairly error prone with strangers, particularly if they are trying to fool you (makeup can be really amazing sometimes).