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Brickbats

Brickbat: Reports of My Death …

Charles Oliver | 9.30.2016 4:00 AM

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Arne9001 / Dreamstime.com

Lee Miller of Port Orange, Florida, logged onto his bank's website to find his savings account had been emptied and most of the money in his checking account was gone, too. Thinking he'd been hacked, he called the bank only to find the federal government had drained his money and given the bank a death notice. They say he died back in 2012. Officials with the Social Security Administration say they'll work with him to correct the matter, but only after he signed an affidavit that he was actually alive.

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NEXT: Pension Mess Can't Go On; That's No Reason to Ignore It

Charles Oliver is a contributing editor at Reason.

BrickbatsSocial SecurityBureaucracy
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  1. straffinrun   9 years ago

    But instead of being targeted by a thief, Miller later learned that the federal government had intentionally withdrawn his money, assuming that he no longer needed it.

    "But instead of"? BTW. Getting the brickbat up promptly at 4:00am everyday. Doffs top hat.

    1. Adans smith   9 years ago

      The feds are the biggest thief's of all.

  2. Rat's voting Chipper-Shredder   9 years ago

    So they drained his account because he was dead but we're still sending him benefit checks?

    1. Libertarian   9 years ago

      Good catch. The amount of fraud in SS must be unbelievable.

      1. Radioactive   9 years ago

        nothing next to the amount of sheer fucking stupidity!

      2. Rat's voting Chipper-Shredder   9 years ago

        It's believable. Fraud and corruption are the norm.

  3. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    The bigger question is why this old fart is holding on to the government's money, leaving it sitting in that bank account, by not dying on a convenient schedule.

    1. Radioactive   9 years ago

      damned commie pinko...

  4. Libertarian   9 years ago

    This is the kind of self-awareness that Trump lacks.

    "Rodrigo Duterte vows to kill 3 million drug addicts and likens himself to Hitler"

    1. Gene   9 years ago

      "If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...," he said, pausing and pointing to himself. "You know my victims. I would like [them] to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition."

      http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/wo.....-1.3785255

  5. Adans smith   9 years ago

    Morning ,The Feds let you use some of their money and if you don't use it,they take it back.

  6. Pat (PM)   9 years ago

    When my dad died I called Social Security within 48 hours to notify them of his death to make sure it didn't cause any problems regarding his or my mom's monthly benefits. Since he died near the end of a month, they told me he'd receive a payment that would be retracted by the treasury department within a week and then everything was squared away. As they promised, he received a payment on the 1st of the month, which was reversed within 1 week, and then his bank account was closed out. 2 months later they sent my mom a letter notifying her that she'd received an overpayment for the amount that they had paid and then reversed, and that they would be deducting a fixed amount from her monthly benefit until it was paid back. Over the next 4-5 weeks, 4-ish hours worth of phone calls and 2 registered letters that they claim never to have received even though there are electronic signature records from USPS resulted in precisely dick. She eventually contacted her congressman and his office's Social Security liaison agreed to help her. That was another month. They finally got it resolved. Social Security returned the money that had been withheld. Over 2 months worth of wrangling to resolve an error caused by an inability of anyone working at the first tier of the SSA to read a fucking bank statement.

    1. Pat (PM)   9 years ago

      Meant to post this as a reply above. Oh well.

    2. Lee Genes   9 years ago

      Why should they worry about it? It ain't their money

    3. Radioactive   9 years ago

      don't be hating on them cause they can't read...perfect products of a publick edumacation!

    4. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

      Could you imagine how many elderly people who don't have the energy or kids to fight this for them are getting fucked over by this organ of stupidity?

  7. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    The dead have returned and are swearing affidavits

    #zombieapocalypse

    1. UnCivilServant   9 years ago

      Bah, they've been back and voting for a while.

      1. Thrackmoor   9 years ago

        The problem isn't voting. Voting takes no intelligence (see: Last few sitting Presidents.) The problem is that they are now smart enough to sign affidavits! Next thing you know, they're breaking into your house, crawling up your leg and biting the inside of your ass... oh, rainBOWS! Never mind.

    2. Rat's voting Chipper-Shredder   9 years ago

      They have been voting for decades so it is nothing unusual. I am surprised they haven't demanded more money for cemetery maintenance.

      1. Inigo Montoya   9 years ago

        Oh, they have plenty of cash for cemetery maintenance. It goes mostly unnoticed, however, because it's in a black budget.

  8. Slammer   9 years ago

    Here's one

    Nine pence

    I'm not dead

    What?

    ...

    1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      Finally - I was waiting for that!

  9. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

    "Miller is one of nearly 10,000 living Americans who are erroneously reported dead to the Social Security Administration (SSA) each year.

    In most cases, the citizens' names, birth dates and Social Security numbers are mistakenly entered into SSA's master death file, a computer database used by government agencies, financial institutions, medical researchers and genealogists."

    This is the result of government shutdowns and TOO MANY CUT BACKS!

    Competence needs morezzzzz moneyzzzz in order to be functional!

    1. Agent Cooper   9 years ago

      Hello Toldeo! We are Master Death File and we are here to rock you!

  10. Domestic Dissident   9 years ago

    Holy crap. Sounds like a good argument for keeping your money in a mattress.

    1. Radioactive   9 years ago

      know who else liked to keep their money in a mattress?

  11. daveclay   9 years ago

    Question on Healthcare.gov: Have you ever been in an accident that resulted in your death?

    That question and this action kinda go hand in hand...

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