Social Security Mistakenly Marking Living Americans as Dead

For Rennie Glasgow, a dedicated 15-year employee at the Social Security Administration (SSA), helping people navigate life’s challenges through Social Security benefits is part of the job. But lately, he’s facing a heartbreaking situation: living Americans being mistakenly classified as deceased in the system, creating a crisis for recipients who suddenly find their benefits stopped.

“There is no information on the record, just that they are dead,” Glasgow shared about four recent cases at his Schenectady, New York office. His team must now work to “resurrect” these individuals so they can receive their rightful Social Security payments.

What was once a rare occurrence has become increasingly common across upstate New York. This concerning pattern has caught the attention of Martin O’Malley, who led the Social Security Administration during part of the Biden administration. At a recent town hall in Wisconsin, he discovered two attendees who knew someone wrongly marked as deceased in the Social Security system.

The Human Cost of Administrative Errors

Being incorrectly labeled as dead in Social Security records creates far more than paperwork problems. It disrupts people’s entire lives and financial stability.

“This impacts their bank account. This impacts their insurance. This impacts their ability to work,” Glasgow explained with genuine concern. These Social Security errors affect “their ability to get anything done in society.”

O’Malley put it more directly: “They are terminating people’s financial lives.”

These troubling misclassifications follow recent changes to Social Security databases. Millions of Social Security numbers have been marked as belonging to deceased individuals. Additionally, thousands of numbers belonging to immigrants have reportedly been removed from the system.

Glasgow revealed that employees received guidance in April about how to help beneficiaries wrongly marked as dead. “Why don’t you just do due diligence to make sure what you’re doing in the first place is correct?” he wondered, expressing frustration on behalf of those affected.

Real People, Real Struggles with Social Security

These incorrect death classifications represent just one aspect of broader changes aimed at eliminating fraud and modernizing the Social Security system. However, these efforts appear to be hindering the agency’s core mission: supporting vulnerable Americans who depend on these benefits.

Lisa Seda’s story illustrates the human impact of Social Security disability issues. While battling cancer, she’s spent weeks trying to resolve her 24-year-old niece’s disability insurance problems. She faces two challenges:

• Updating her niece’s address in the Social Security system
• Understanding why the program deducts about $400 monthly for Medicare premiums that might not be necessary

Since March, payments have arrived inconsistently—sometimes direct-deposited, other times mailed to an outdated address. Resolving these issues has meant enduring long wait times and multiple visits seeking appointments.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. “If the agency halts the niece’s disability payments, then she will be homeless,” Seda told a Social Security employee. “I don’t know if I’m going to survive this cancer or not, but there is nobody else to help her.”

Technology Challenges Affecting Real Lives

Some problems stem from technology issues within the Social Security Administration. According to information provided to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, the agency’s systems have been failing more frequently. When this happens, “it can delay or even stop payments to Social Security recipients.”

For the more than 70 million beneficiaries nationwide, Social Security is a lifeline. More than a third of recipients reported they couldn’t afford necessities if their checks stopped coming, according to a January survey.

Unprecedented Hardships

Advocates and lawyers report that Social Security is currently struggling to deliver services at a level that’s nearly unprecedented.

Carolyn Villers, executive director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, shared that two of her members received their March Social Security payments several days late. “For one member that meant not being able to pay rent on time,” she said. “The delayed payment is not something I’ve heard in the last 20 years.”

When asked about how to correct Social Security errors, officials redirected questions to the White House. A spokesperson referenced plans to increase government efficiency while promising that “every recipient will continue to receive their benefits.”

Growing Concerns in Communities

Complaints about missed Social Security payments are rising quickly. By early April, the Arizona attorney general’s office had received approximately 40 complaints related to delayed or disrupted payments.

A Connecticut agency helping Medicare recipients reported that complaints related to Social Security had nearly doubled in March compared to the previous year.

Lawyers representing beneficiaries note that while the agency has always experienced some errors, the situation is worsening as experienced employees leave the SSA.

“We’re seeing more mistakes being made,” said James Ratchford, a West Virginia lawyer with 17 years of experience representing Social Security beneficiaries. “We’re seeing more things get dropped.”

Kim Beavers of Missouri attempted to complete a routine disability update form in February. However, her scheduled Social Security payments for March and April never arrived. Despite showing printouts of her submitted documents, she was told there was no record of her submission.

The Human Element: Staffing Challenges

Researchers and lawyers believe many problems stem from staffing changes in the Social Security Administration. Approximately 7,000 SSA employees have reportedly been let go, with estimates that 3,000 more might leave.

“As the workloads go up, the demoralization becomes deeper, and people burn out and leave,” O’Malley predicted during an April hearing. “It’s going to mean that if you go to a field office, you’re going to see a heck of a lot more empty, closed windows.”

These departures have significantly impacted the agency’s regional payment centers. Without adequate staff, cases “languish,” potentially causing beneficiaries to lose crucial programs like Medicare.

Melanie Lambert, a senior advocate at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, has noticed more cases where beneficiaries’ payments to Medicare aren’t properly processed. As a result, people lose health coverage, trapping them in bureaucratic complications.

Supporting Those Who Serve

Employees are also struggling with more frequent technology failures in the Social Security system. “There’s issues every single day with our system,” said Glasgow from the Schenectady office, noting these problems began in mid-March.

The mounting challenges leave Glasgow concerned about the future of the agency and its ability to serve those who depend on Social Security benefits most.

As these issues continue, it’s important to remember that behind every mistaken death classification, delayed payment, or system error is a real person whose well-being hangs in the balance.