Social Security Error Declares Woman Dead and Ruins Finances

Brooklyn Bernard never expected to receive a notice that she was dead.

But the Nashville, Tennessee woman says a Social Security mistake declaring her deceased led to a host of financial difficulties and made her bank card impossible to use.

Bernard originally received the disturbing notice at the beginning of January from Estate Information Services.

“It said we are sending condolences to the Estate of Brooklyn Bernard, and telling my estate how they could pay off a debt I owed,” she told local station WSMV 4.

Bernard wanted to ignore it at first, believing it might be a scam. But instead, she called the number and paid off her bill.

Weeks later, another sign of trouble hit: her bank card was denied at a Walmart.

“I was like, that’s odd, this never happens,” Bernard said.

Then a dreadful email made its way into her inbox, and it confirmed what seemed impossible: she had been declared legally dead.

“I looked down at my phone and I had an email stating that I was deceased, and my account was closed,” Bernard said. “So, that kind of had me distraught.”

She then called the customer service department for her bank, but they kept transferring her to different people until someone finally revealed the Social Security Administration had made the declaration.

“I just thought it was a mistake that was cleared up and done when I paid that first bill,” Bernard said. “So, how can this be happening? Because yeah, I am alive and breathing.”

Due to the error, Bernard’s credit card and bank account had been closed, and she couldn’t access any of her money. This forced her to rely on family and friends to pay even her most basic needs, like rent. Feeding her daughter suddenly became unclear.

Many questions remained. How would Bernard be able to deposit her work checks? What had happened to her student loans?

“It’s a lot, having a seven-year-old daughter to take care of,” she said. “I had moments where I’d just cry, and the emotional part of it, I don’t think people understand unless they actually been through it.”

Bernard is not alone. According to the Social Security Advisory Board, up to 12,000 people are mistakenly declared deceased by the agency each year.

“It’s really the worst case scenario financially, and the saddest part is it isn’t the person affected’s fault,” financial literacy instructor Alex Beene told Newsweek.

“Being mistakenly declared dead can have a ripple effect that causes complications among multiple government agencies, as the Social Security Administration has a master file of those declared dead, and it’s difficult to get off that list due to there being very few errors each year with it.”

Once in the SSA’s Death Master File, all government benefits typically end, and bank accounts and credit cards are immediately closed. People facing this mistake also lose their health insurance and can no longer file taxes.

Getting a background check or applying for a new loan could no longer be feasible either.

Newsweek reached out to the SSA via email for more information on how these types of mistakes can occur.

Michael Ryan, a finance expert who runs michaelryanmoney.com, said he’s seen firsthand how devastating the mistake can be, leading to frozen accounts, lost income, shattered credit, and even identity theft.

Most of the time, the mistakes come down to data entry errors and mixing up similar names or numbers.

“In our data-driven era, we cannot blindly entrust our financial lives and identities to computer systems without zealous oversight,” Ryan told Newsweek. “There are no substitutes for diligence when an erroneous declaration of death can open the floodgates to monetary and legal chaos.”

What If This Happens to Me?

If you ever find yourself in this situation, there are steps you need to take immediately to get your financial life back on track.

You should go straight to the source, your Social Security office, and show your driver’s license or passport.

The SSA can then issue a letter that corrects the dead declaration. If a financial institution doesn’t accept this letter, you should file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

When Bernard did this, she was told by the SSA that her number was used on someone’s death certificate. And despite now having an erroneous death letter from the agency, she’s still dealing with delays on taxes and her credit report hasn’t fully been restored.

“Hopefully they take notice and not do this to someone else,” Bernard said. “Because this should not be a common mistake at all, this is insane.”