An 82-year-old man was left facing a grueling two month bureaucratic battle after he got a letter from his bank declaring him dead.
Ned Johnson had his Social Security payments suspended and had to make numerous calls, written appeals and even a four-hour ordeal at the Social Security office, he recalled.
But the problems aren't over. He told ABC: "I've since learned that I'm on the Death Master File that apparently is going to chase me for the rest of my life.
"It means that when Social Security declared me as deceased, there's a file that's kept ... that I'm listed on and, apparently, it doesn't go away. So we're struggling with a few issues now that are starting to crop up since we started this whole thing."
The whole thing began when Ned's wife, Pam Johnson, got a letter from Bank of America in February which expressed sympathy for her husband's supposed death in November.
"First, I thought it was a scam because it was just a little letter, and they also attached a couple of documents for me to fill out to send back to Bank of America's estate division," she explained to ABC News.
"So I verified that it was the estate division and the phone number was correct. And then the second letter we got right after that was showing that debit to our checking account."
The issue finally started to get resolved after Ned paid a visit to his local Social Security Administration office. However, he noted that despite thinking his troubles were behind him, the problem still lingers, saying, "This thing follows you follows you like a bad smell."
Although he has begun receiving his Social Security checks again, a new problem has emerged - the checks are arriving, but with deductions.
Pam mentioned that she and her husband are fortunate to be financially stable, allowing them to cope with missing several checks. Nevertheless, others may not be as lucky.
This comes amid efforts by the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to tackle alleged fraud within the Social Security system, including payments supposedly made to deceased individuals.
As part of its initiatives to combat waste and fraud, the Social Security Administration has introduced changes requiring recipients to verify their bank details either in person or online, rather than over the phone. "My advice would be, watch your bank account and be prepared to -- if you get tagged with one of these issues -- it's going to take some time," Ned Johnson advised.
"And you just have to be patient and persistent if you expect to get anywhere."
