As a Social Security disability law firm we realize that Social Security keeps pretty close tabs on anyone who receives or is attempting to receive Social Security benefits. Obviously Social Security does not want funds going to a deceased person because those funds could illegally be used by someone close to the person who has died. Unfortunately we have clients who pass away prior to a final decision on a disability claim and many times it is Social Security that informs us of the death of the claimant. After we are notified of this Social Security usually asks us to submit a death certificate for the claimant, probably so the agency can verify the death. If you’ve ever dealt with Social Security you know that mistakes are made. Mistakes are made in every line of business, but when Social Security makes a mistake when life and death are the issue it can be extremely difficult to deal with for the living.
Social Security has a Death Master File that includes all the Social Security numbers of deceased people. The problem is that sometimes the wrong Social Security numbers are entered into the system and living individuals are proclaimed dead by Social Security. See this recent story The New England Journal of Medicine. Your entire life can be put into chaos if Social Security believes you’re dead. Your bank accounts are frozen, your credit cards cancelled and your health insurance expires and of course your Social Security monthly benefits stop just to begin with.
You may think this is something that impacts very few people, but there are more than you think. The same article indicated that there are about 1000 people per month who are wrongly added to Social Security’s Death Master File. Although it only takes a couple of key strokes at Social Security to pronounce someone is deceased the fight to come back to life can takes months worth of misery and trying to prove you are still alive.
