There is life after death at the Social Security office

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 1, 2002 | by Stephen Goode

When Jackie Turcotte applied recently for a new credit card she was told she couldn't have one. The reason: she happens to be dead, according to her Social Security Administration (SSA) records, and has been since 1986. That bit of news, to put it mildly, surprised Turcotte, who at age 36 is very much alive and a resident of Sanilac Township, Mich., where she lives with her husband. An understandably bewildered Turcotte told the Times Herald of Port Huron, "I was in awe when I heard that" according to Associated Press.

For the last 15 years--ever since she is alleged to have died--Turcotte has been busy. She got married, for one thing, and paid off her student loans for another. But the folks at Social Security claim they heard nothing about any of that. She also regularly filed joint tax returns with her spouse, which should have triggered news of her status among the living to federal officials but didn't. So, for a decade-and-a-half, Turcotte's records were kept under a dead woman's Social Security number and the feds dutifully recorded in their computers that said dead woman regularly paid Social Security taxes to an agency that unhesitatingly accepted them.

Government officials say it was a typing error that led to Turcotte's premature demise. They likewise say that the best way for American citizens to tell if they're dead, at least in the eyes of the SSA, is if they don't receive a yearly statement of status from the agency.