When one Gibraltar woman didn’t see her Social Security payment in her checking account as expected, she went to the Social Security office for answers. Workers there delivered her unexpected news.
“They informed me I was dead,” said Carolynn Mallia.
Workers there told her it happens sometimes when funeral homes input the wrong Social Security Number into the system. At first, her family and friends got a laugh out of it.
“My assistant pastor asked if they could pray for my resurrection and my husband says he is sleeping with a corpse. I think i look pretty good for a corpse,” said Mallia.
But now they all want Carolynn alive in every way again. She has learned it impacted more than just her Social Security payment.
“It impacted my driver’s license. I came up as deceased on that. Some of my credit cards I was getting condolence letters from them,” said Mallia.
The Social Security office has given her a letter to provide to everyone who has her recorded as dead, and says eventually the problem will be fixed.
Right now she is struggling to buy health insurance in the marketplace. She hopes she is able to do so by the deadline, but so far has been unable to figure out how to get the system to stop flagging her as deceased.
She says there should be a simpler process for fixing such a mistake.
“I have no idea how long it is going to take to get this completely rectified and I just wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” said Mallia.
The Social Security administration has apologized and issued her checks in person, so she doesn’t go without. It also has used technology to decrease errors, but they still sometimes happen.
