When I was an undergraduate student, the admissions office accidentally listed me as deceased and sent out a notice to all my professors of my untimely death. My English professor just about had a heart attack when I walked into her class room the next day.
The rest of the day was spent trying to convince the bureaucrats at the school that I was, in fact, alive.
I totally understand the surprise of Nicole Paulino of Gaithersburg, Maryland, when the bureaucrats at the federal Social Security office declared her deceased.
Paulino found out about the error when she went to renew her driver's license.
‘It then appears that I am deceased,' she told NBC4 Washington.
‘I got a little frightened, I'm not gonna lie, and surprised, because I am alive. I'm here.'
But not getting her license was just the beginning of her problems.
She got a letter from the IRS telling her she was a deceased taxpayer. Her insurance provider dropped her, leaving her unable to buy her inhaler for her asthma.
When she contacted the Social Security office, they apologized and told her there was a typo. A funeral home had submitted a death certificate and got one digit wrong on the deceased's Social Security number.
Apparently, that happens all the time.
The Social Security Administration said its records were highly accurate and that less than 0.33% of the more than three million death reports they received annually were later corrected - suggesting around 10,000 reports were wrong each year.
‘This happens almost on a daily basis,' attorney Joseph McClelland said.
A daily basis?
McClelland also joked, ‘The impact is the worst impact you can have on your credit report.'
But can it get you out of paying taxes? 🤔
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