Renee Williams was very much alive and living in West Philadelphia when she discovered a serious problem. Her bank accounts, health insurance and retirement benefits had all been cut off.
The reason? She’d been placed in the "Death Master File" maintained by the Social Security Administration.
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Williams has spent more than six months trying to ensure everything is restored and lives in fear she’ll lose it all again due to a clerical error.
"I go to sleep at night and think about if they’re going to cut me off again, not knowing day-to-day what’s going to happen to my benefits," Williams told CBS News Philadelphia.
It’s a reasonable concern. Her benefit payments are still inconsistent, credit and banking issues remain and the whole experience has been “a pain in the behind.” Worse still, she’s not the only American in this situation.
Sadly, such problems may only get worse as the Trump administration culls government jobs and overhauls agencies — with the Social Security Administration (SSA) a top target.
In April, an estimated 2,500 SSA workers accepted buyouts as part of the government’s efforts to eliminate 7,000 jobs in the agency, AARP reports.
How many Americans are wrongfully declared dead?
According to the Social Security Administration, less than 1% of the three million deaths the SSA records annually are incorrect. That works out to about 10,000 people a year whom the SSA deems dead, but who are actually alive. That’s not good.
But Elon Musk has inadvertently made the problem worse. Ironically, that’s because he’s more concerned about benefits going out to people who are dead, claiming rampant fraud.
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That’s one reason he overhauled the Social Security Administration database as part of the Department of Government Efficiency DOGE — to eliminate such errors.
Unfortunately, as the Daily Beast reports, that overhaul is now cutting off benefits to a growing number of people who, like Williams, are alive and well but who are declared dead.
According to ABC News, experts believe Musk may have misread the records by reading the wrong databases.
Rennie Glasgow, a Social Security claims technical analyst who has worked in the Social Security Administration’s Schenectady field office for 15 years, told the Daily Beast that 4 million people have been marked dead on the database as a result of the DOGE overhaul — even though many are alive.
“We have people who did not receive benefits come in every day with their ID and say, ‘I’m not dead, I’m alive!’” he said, noting it can take three to four days to “resurrect” them.
"When they mark someone dead on the Social Security record, it stops their life,” Glasgow said. “It stops their car payments, it stops their credit, it stops their ability to do anything.
Class-action lawsuit in the works
One Philadelphia consumer protection attorney, Jim Francis, is helping these victims fight back.
"These are all people who are going about their normal lives, and all of the sudden, they lose access to all of their benefits, their pension, their medical insurance and they become financially paralyzed," Jim Francis told CBS News.
Francis is representing a Baltimore family in Baltimore that is trying to initiate a class action against Social Security after their relative, Joyce Evans, was improperly reported dead in 2023.
The family claims the mistake caused financial and health problems, leading Joyce Evans to actually die months after the error occurred.
"It’s a really serious problem and in the world of data being misreported, this is almost as bad as it gets, if not the worst,” Francis said.
What to do if you’re wrongfully declared dead
If you have been improperly marked as being deceased, make an appointment with your local Social Security Administration field office as soon as possible.
You’ll need to bring valid ID with you, which can include one of the following documents:
- Passport
- Driver’s license
- Employee ID
- Military record
- School ID
- Marriage, divorce or adoption record
- Health insurance card or medical record
- Life insurance policy
- Court order for name change
- Church membership
The original documents, or copies certified by the issuing agency, must be presented to the Social Security Administration. No photocopies are accepted.
Once Social Security corrects your record, they will provide an “Erroneous Death Case – Third Party Contact" Notice that you can show to banks, doctors and others to get your accounts back and your life restored.
Hopefully, field offices will be responsive in preparing this document, despite staff shortages and a growing number of the ‘undead’ fighting to restore their lives.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
