Morbid Mix-Up: Government Says Senior Citizen Is Dead, Drains Bank Account

NBC 5 Responds unravels the morbid mix-up

Eighty-six-year-old Mildred Martin may be a lot of things, but dead isn’t one of them. The Calumet City senior citizen said she recently learned of her demise in a bank statement, where she noticed $2,600 missing from her account. The money had been withdrawn by the Social Security Administration, without any warning.

"When I found out that they said I was deceased, I said, ‘This is crazy!’" Martin told NBC 5 Responds. "I called the bank immediately and they told me social security had pulled the money out of my account. I said, ‘How can that be?’"

Social Security had clawed back what it said was an overpayment of benefits after it determined Martin to be dead. A morbid mix-up Martin’s son, Scott Lee found infuriating.

“I don’t understand how they can do that. Go into an elderly person’s bank account, without warning, and just basically empty her bank account,” Lee said.

So, with the help of family members, Martin marched into a nearby Social Security Office to prove she was very much alive.

"She said, ‘I understand they have you deceased on the records,’” Martin recalled, “And I said, ‘How can this happen?’ And she said.’Well, unfortunately it happens -- a lot.’"

The Social Security Administration told NBC 5 Responds that living people are mistakenly classified as dead 9,000 times a year. The agency pointed out that it does not generate death information; rather, it collects it from a variety of sources like family members, funeral parlors, financial institutions and States. When a mistake is made, that person’s most personal information – name, social security number, and birth date – is released to a public database called the Death Master File. Once labeled in that file, accurately or not, a citizen’s information goes out to government and banking databases used for credit checks, Medicare and the like – potentially making life -- for those still here -- a living hell.

"I said, ‘This is not fair.’ I said, ‘I am mad,’" Martin said.

Living on a fixed income, Martin said she doesn’t have the luxury of time to wait for the government to act.. Martin said the agency first told her it could take up to 30 days to fix this mistake, during which she would not have been able to pay her bills. So she turned to NBC 5 Responds for help.

Within one day of our call to Social Security, the $2,600 was back in her account. The agency apologized and said while its accuracy rate is high, it also works quickly to fix errors.

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