A Seattle man is trying to reclaim back his welfare benefits after he was mistakenly declared “deceased” by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Ned Johnson, 82, first learned of his “death” when his wife Pam received a letter from their bank in February, offering their condolences and notifying her that the SSA had requested the return of his Social Security payments, according to a March 15 column by Danny Westneat in The Seattle Times.

In a response to a request for comment, the SSA pointed Newsweek towards a March 16 press release, which said that errors like what happened to Johnson occur in less than one-third of 1 percent of the more than three million death reports the agency receives annually.

Why It Matters

The SSA distributes billions of dollars in benefits each month to nearly 70 million recipients, serving as a vital source of income for retirees nationwide. But when someone is mistakenly reported as deceased to the SSA, it can result in benefits being halted, potentially causing financial hardship until the error is corrected and payments are reinstated.

What to Know

After reading the bank letter, the Johnsons found that the bank had already deducted $5,201 from their account, The Seattle Times reported.

Johnson’s Medicare coverage was also canceled, and his credit score was marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” making it difficult to obtain a loan.

“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told The Seattle Times. “It’s been truly surreal.”

Per Westneat’s column, Johnson spent nearly three weeks trying to resolve the issue, repeatedly calling SSA offices with no success, until eventually, he visited his local Social Security office in downtown Seattle.

There, he waited in line for hours before showing an employee he was still alive, and his bank later reinstated the deducted funds.

However, as of last week, he had yet to receive his missing February and March benefit payments, Westneat wrote.

The SSA urged anyone who believes they have been mistakenly declared dead to visit their local office with a valid, non-expired form of identification.

The agency stated it “takes immediate action to correct its records” and can issue a letter confirming the correction.

Elon Musk has previously called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” and has made the claim that there could be as much as $700 billion a year in entitlement fraud in the system.

It was also reported last week that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) now has 10 staffers in the SSA to look for evidence that there could be millions of dead people receiving public benefits.

However, there is no evidence that DOGE had any role in Johnson’s false death declaration, and DOGE has also responded to the article on X, formerly Twitter, saying the incident had “zero connection” to President Donald Trump‘s Musk-led cost-cutting initiative and that it was “maliciously misleading.”

“As of last week, @DOGE and @SocialSecurity are now working together to increase the accuracy of the “Death Master File” and eliminate these errors, the first ever real attempt to do so,” the post added.

Newsweek has contacted DOGE via social media for further comment.

“I’m OK with mistakes being made,” Johnson told The Seattle Times. “But I’m not sure how much they’re focused on fixing these kinds of mistakes going forward, as they are in using the mistakes to tear the place down.”

His wife, Pam Johnson, told the outlet: “You sort of have no choice but to laugh it off. But it seems like it’s going to get worse.”

What People Are Saying

Democratic Washington Senator Patty Murray, wrote in a post on X: “Ned struggled to correct this mistake because Elon is firing SSA staff and shuttering offices. This is real waste, fraud, and abuse—thanks to Republicans.”

DOGE wrote in a post on X: “In the same way that dead people are marked as living, the reverse also happens, with Mr. Johnson’s case being one example…With regards to service centers being understaffed, this is true. @SocialSecurity has been on a hybrid work-from-home model, which is currently being transitioned to a full work-from-office model.”

What Happens Next

Although Johnson has proven he is alive, he has been warned that errors like his can persist. “Once you’re tagged as dead in the electronic morgue, it floats in the ether and can haunt you again,” he told The Seattle Times.