Social Security Takes $5201 from Retiree Account and Cuts Him Off

Ned Johnson is very much alive at age 82, but in February 2025, Social Security decided he was dead and took money from his bank account as though they were benefits paid after he died.

The first he knew of his death was through a letter from his bank addressed to his wife Pam, not to him. It said, “We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing. We offer our sincerest condolences… ”

He was sitting there with her.

The letter went on. “We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help. We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”

“There’s nothing you need to do—we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”

The bank itemized $5,201 taken from their bank account on the grounds that Johnson should not have been paid in December and January after he died.

He spent two weeks phoning Social Security two or three times a day. Each call got put on hold and eventually disconnected instead of going through. When he got through to a person at last, they set an appointment for 13 March, which Social Security has now delayed to 24 March.

As a last resort, he went to the nearest office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building. After waiting four hours there, when he saw an opening, his frustration boiled over. “I saw an opening and I kind of rushed up and told them I was listed as dead. That seemed to get their attention.”

With his passport, Johnson was able to convince the staff he is alive. They promised to fix the problem. On Thursday 13 March the money Social Security had taken was returned to his account.

As of 16 March, Johnson still does not have the monthly benefits that were not paid for February and March, and his Medicare has been terminated. He said, “When I was in that line, I was thinking that if I was living solely off Social Security, I could be close to dumpster diving about now.”

Elon Musk’s team has pushed building where Johnson at last got through to a person onto the list of federal properties to be shut down. That’s the same team of IT experts who did not understand Social Security’s use of a common IT practice of using placeholder dates where birthdates are unknown birthdates; the team concluded every record which did that represented a person who must have died years ago, a novice programmer’s mistake.

Click here for more details.