Social Security error results in rich revelation for Colorado lady

A Social Security error caused a lot of revelations and a fair amount of financial trouble for Colorado resident Judy Olson.

In February 2021, Olson’s mother died, and over the next period of time, he began arranging her affairs, including alerting Social Security Administration about her death.

During the call, Olson was asked for her mother’s name as well as her Social Security number, which she could not fully understand while in attendance. She told CBS Colorado: “I said why do you need my information? They said verify who you are and where you belong.”

On the other hand, the next time Olson was with her mother over her divorce, she received some stressful information. “Judy, you’ve been banking here for 15-20 years so we know who you are, but when we opened your account, you were considered dead,” Olson said a warehouse employee informed her.

Since she was considered legally dead by the SSA, Olson was not able to get into her accounts and found herself in an impossible situation. “Why did this happen? How did this happen?” Olson informed CBS.

Olson’s case probably boiled down to a small error made by an SSA worker that turned into a significant conviction.

“This is not a common mistake, although it does happen,” said Kevin Thompson, finance expert and founder of 9i Capital Workforce. Newsweek. “As we all know, SSA is underfunded and potentially understaffed, and depending on political rhetoric there could be potential cuts in staffing to these organizations in the future.”

Resolving the mistake at the SSA stage was not easy in future also.

“The lady I spoke to was very nice, she apologized profusely and she said she could only think that this must have happened, because the person on the phone had mistakenly pronounced me dead. She said, ‘ It’s clear that you are you, and we’ll take care of that,” Olson noted.

Over the next two weeks, Olson was able to regain access to her accounts, but she faced financial setbacks because of the error.

Please watch Week Olson filed her mother’s 2021 taxes, but received no refund, even though she said she owed about $4,000.

“‘We are working on your account, we need an additional 60 days to send you a full response.’ It’s a different date, same letter, 60 days,” Olson said of the letters he won from the IRS.

Olson said he called the company and visited its administrative center several times. They also applied for money in 2023, but are still receiving disappointing responses.

“‘We’re sorry, but since we have no record of receiving your tax filing from the above period, we must ask you to re-file,'” Olson said, referring to some of the other letters from the IRS.

She told CBS that when she goes online to check the status of her tax return, it is still marked as “in process.”

“It really kept me from accepting my mother’s death emotionally. And as a trustee, I felt like I had to do everything right and do it for everyone. It definitely affected my The grieving process has been pushed back a bit,” Olson noted.

If Olson had not acted immediately, Thompson said, she would have faced possibly a dozen additional financial difficulties as a woman declared legally dead.

“The consequences can be serious, especially if it’s not caught early,” he said. “If this goes on for a year, maybe two or three years, you’ll start to notice during your tax filing. Your tax return or refund is not likely to come back to you. You’re not going to get any money through Social Security.” Work history is not being credited.”

“Employers are required to remit half of the FICA tax to the government, but if you no longer exist, that money will either be refunded or go into a reserve account,” Thompson said.

An SSA spokesperson gave this information newsweek: “If a person suspects that they have been incorrectly listed as deceased on their Social Security record, they should contact their local Social Security office as soon as possible.

“They must be willing to provide at least a piece of the most recent method of identification (no longer expired). Social Security will take prompt action to correct our information and we will be able to provide a letter that the mistake is corrected. taken may be shared with alternative organizations.”

According to the spokesperson, approximately 3.1 million deaths are reported to the SSA each year. And less than one-third of 1 percent need to be repaired.

Alex Bean, financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, tells SELF. newsweek“Situations like this are statistically very uncommon, however deaths that were erroneously declared to Social Security had a serious impact on affected taxpayers.”

Bean said if you find yourself in this situation, you should seek out an attorney at the tax service you use to help you navigate the IRS.

“Declared deaths can also be curbed, but usually require resolution of the cloud and any lingering financial problems that may arise,” he said. “You want to have someone other than yourself who can keep track of any updates and reach out to the right network to make sure it’s resolved. Most importantly, Social Security and others who can help you Be calm and patient with people. Any gift is a question of cash, there is a way of urgency, but sadly such problems do not always go away in a short period of time.

Michael Ryan, a finance expert who founded Money.com, said that although Olson’s situation is not common, he once knew someone who was mistakenly declared dead. The man later couldn’t pay his mortgage and lost his home due to the financial hit.

“It is very important to have a ‘monetary crisis plan’ in the park, which includes readily available financial savings and a list of key contacts to reach out to in case of such unexpected occasions,” Ryan explains. newsweek, “SSA processes millions of death studies each year, and speeding errors impact no more than 1%, which also means thousands of community impacts each week.”