Social Insecurity

He's 82 years old and lives with his wife in Seattle, Washington.

My wife got the first notice from Bank of America with their condolences over my death.

(laughs)

As you can hear, Ned Johnson is very much alive.

Two days later, we got a second notice from the bank declaring that the, uh, Social Security had deducted $5,200 from our checking account.

Wow.

Johnson was mistakenly put on what is called the Death Master File and now had to convince the Social Security Administration that he wasn't dead.

That process likely hasn't ever been very fun or easy, but these days, it's a full-time job.

I discovered after 50 some-odd phone calls trying to get through and was put on hold for two hours at a time and then it...

The phone would go dead, and you'd have to start all over again.

Johnson finally got through and was given an in-person appointment six weeks later.

Instead of waiting a month and a half, he decided he'd visit his local Social Security office in person.

I was ushered into the room by three armed guards and sat with some 50-odd people.

So I sat there for six or eight hours that day, and I realized that I was never gonna get to the front of the line to see one of about three or four caseworkers.

Their office facility has about 30 or 40 workstations and only had three or four agents.

As he puts it, Johnson got lucky.

As soon as a window opened up, he ran over and told the agent, "I'm not really dead.

Can you help me?" After several more hours of waiting and speaking with several more agents, they were finally able to start the process of resurrecting Ned Johnson.

In the meantime, Johnson had lost his healthcare, his credit score went down to zero, and his entire life has been totally upended.

And even though Social Security has assured Johnson that he's now alive in their system, he hasn't gotten his next payment yet, so he can't be entirely sure.