A Colorado man fighting to reverse the Social Security Administration’s mistake that declared him dead said he has no idea where to turn as the ordeal stretches into a third month.
Alex Vukovich’s Social Security check disappeared from his bank account in late January after the federal agency mistakenly placed him on its list of deceased recipients. His February check never came, and despite assurances earlier this month that Social Security had finally fixed the problem, he hasn’t received his March payment, either.
Vukovich said his bank called him after Social Security sent another notice that he’d died on March 17. Colorado’s Aurora Social Security office didn’t return his calls after the latest death notice, and the national call center told him he’d have to make an appointment in Aurora.
The next appointment isn’t until April 9. While Vukovich has some savings, about 40% of retired Americans reported Social Security payments were their only income as of 2020, meaning not everyone could weather going a month without their checks — let alone three.
“This seems like one big circle with no exit,” he said.
The Social Security Administration estimated that fewer than 0.33% of the 3.1 million death reports it receives each year need corrections. But that still works out to as many as 10,000 incorrect death reports annually.
Most reports come from the states, but family members, funeral homes, federal agencies and financial institutions notify the agency of some deaths, it said.
The Social Security Administration distributes about $1.5 trillion a year in retirement benefits to roughly 73 million American retirees, people with disabilities and family members entitled to survivor benefits.
Another Colorado man, Tom Kind, also ended up on Social Security’s death list prematurely, according to 9News. As of mid-March, he and his nephew couldn’t get assurances from the Social Security Administration that they’d fixed the problem.
The agency said it couldn’t comment on whether two Colorado men being wrongly declared dead in quick succession was a coincidence or a possible larger problem.
The Social Security Administration has struggled to serve recipients in the last month, with its website crashing four times in 10 days and phone wait times stretching two to three hours amid Elon Musk’s cost-cutting at the agency, according to The Washington Post.
Vukovich said he called or visited the national and local Social Security offices at least five times before receiving the most recent death notice, and had been assured they’d fixed the problem each time. The only explanation he received was that someone made a mistake entering the data when a man with a similar name died, he said.
“I’m at my wits’ end,” he said.
