Social Security

@dfollin (24307)
United States
August 17, 2011 1:49pm CST
My husband died almost 7 years ago and my daughter and I have been receiving Survivor Benefits since then.And I don't and haven't felt bad about it at all.It is not welfare,tax payers money,it is money that my husband earned in his 30 years of being a plumber and it was taken out of his pay.And he will not be here to collect it when he should of retired,so I know that he would agree that me and our daughter should be getting it. However the other day I was informed that I am no longer going to receive my part of the check because I did not fill out a form that was sent to me. They said that I had to go into the office.I walked 6 miles,at this point my partially handicapped legs were totally numb and my foot that has tendonitis and a bone spur in it I could barely was swollen and had a fever in it.Luckily my oldest son called me.He knew he was going,but he didn't know that he was walking,that my ride did not show up.He came and got me.Stayed with me at the office,gave me a ride to the social security office,stayed there with me,gave me a ride back and paid for my dinner at McDonalds. At the office they could not find my social security number,then thru my husbands social security number they found that they had sent me the letter saying that the form number that was apparently sent to me she did not recognize.I had never received this form.She went in the back and found out that the form was where I had to prove that my daughter lived with me! She is 14,where else would she live?!!!So,I had to fill out a reconsideration form. Then I looked on the Yahoo! and seen an article about how a woman,also living in Virginia had was on permanent disability due to an advanced form of depression.She has 2 children.One day she got noticed that both her rent check and student loan check bounced! The bank said that her account was closed,she had been declared dead!It took 2 to 3 months for them to straighten out the mistake and start getting her checks resumed.All of her records were deleted from the social security data base,so she had to basically re-create herself.She has $300-$400 in late and bounce fees that she had to pay.This has made her depression worse understandably. The article continues to state that over 36,000 people between of May 2007 and April 2010 have been noted as dead by social security that are alive.Who knows how many before and after? Has anything like this happened to you? Does anything seem off with your social security that you think that you should look into?
3 people like this
4 responses
@peavey (16936)
• United States
17 Aug 11
There are a lot of people on SS of one form or another, so things are bound to happen. While almost everything is done on a computer, a computer only knows as much as the human tells it. I agree that it's bad when things like this happen because it affects real people. There should be a way to recompense people late fees and such, when it does happen.
2 people like this
• United States
17 Aug 11
Wow what a nightmare and I am sorry to hear that their incompetence caused you so much trouble. Glad to hear that your son came to the rescue. Did it get finally resolved. How sad for the woman who had all those fees, and yes I agree I can imagine her emotional state was affected as she relies on that to pay her rent. Wow how terrible that somehow they did have their system flag on how so many numbers of people we wrongfully listed as passing away. I hope they develop a method to stop this from happening again.
1 person likes this
@dfollin (24307)
• United States
18 Aug 11
Thank you and thank God,he was able to come.Traffic wasn't very busy,but a lady got mad at him and yelling at him for stopping to get me..No,I had to fill out a reconsideration form and her check will come.But,it is not enough to even pay our rent..If they see that my daughter does live with me,them I MIGHT get my check SOMETIME in September. I hope that they do too.
• Canada
17 Aug 11
Fortunately nothing like that has wver happened to my husband, or myself, but if it did, we wouldn't hesitate to get our attorney involved, on the double. How aweful for the people who have had to deal with it!!!
1 person likes this
@annjilena (5618)
• United States
30 Aug 11
wow i read your story that is a very bad thing to happen can you imagine if that happen to a lot people we be thrown out doors left and right.some landlords will not wait for their money.iam glad you was able to take care of it. good luck to you and your daughter.