Government Mistakenly Declares Deaths of Citizens

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.'"

Comments

simple solution.. just contact nobel prize winner

[ptr2004]

Lal Bihari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lal_Bihari
He founded the Association of the Dead .. for chrissake !!

Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity?

[Dun Malg]

I don't know anyone who looks like their passport photo. As long as you're the right gender and have the right skin color, you can probably get away with a surprising number of other differences. Not to mention that a photo is not worth any more than the rigor with which they check it. Are you fucking serious? I would assume that an official trying to help you re-animate a dead identity would perhaps scrutinize the photo a bit closer than, say, a DHS dolt at a window at the airport processing eight hundred people a day. News flash! Government employees are not all copies of the same model robot with identical programming! They think! They reason! They apply varying degrees of effort depending on the importance of the task!

Re:Do you trust the government with your idenity?

[OrangeTide]

California ID's require a thumb print and a photo, which are recorded at a central office. If your card does not match what they have on record, then it is a fake. If you don't match what is on record, then you are also a fake.

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

[CedgeS]

35 errors per day is actually a pretty significant error rate. There are about (8.26 / 1000 / year * 301,139,947 * 1 day) = 6810 deaths per day in the US, so they are entering or receiving about one out of every 200 records incorrectly. This means that about ((35 / day) / 301,139,947 * 77.8 year) = .0033 or one in every three hundred people will be incorrectly marked dead during their lifetime if this error rate continues.

Re:What should have been.

[Jesus_666]

The solution is not more digits, but to make social security numbers, nay ALL identifying numbers, self checksumming.

SSNs aren't even checksummed? Holy shit, that's pretty primitive for a number that can ruin a person's life if entered incorrectly.


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.