https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/“DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People,” the headlines read this past week.I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.Of course the circumstances of Ned Johnson’s death were completely the opposite of what Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had claimed was rampant.“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Johnson told me. “It’s been truly surreal.”That’s the biggest difference — my deceased guy turns out to be very much alive. Musk is contending that hordes of dead people are listed as alive in the Social Security databases, and are fraudulently still drawing benefits (which the Social Security director disputes).Johnson is 82 and still kicking. Yet sometime last month, someone or something led Social Security to both tag him as dead and start clawing back his benefits.Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.“We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.“We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote. “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.”Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn’t justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he’d received in December and January.
>>1392426Ned found that his February Social Security check hadn’t been paid, and he’s yet to receive his March check, either. His Medicare insurance had been canceled. He also learned that when you die, your credit score gets marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” which makes it tough to get a loan.“The good news is I don’t think it can go any lower than that,” he said cheerfully.He called the bank first, and they said an electronic notification had been triggered on Feb. 18 that he had died back in November. But I’m on the phone with you right now, he told them. Also, what did I die of? Take it up with Social Security, they said.Sign up for Evening BriefDelivered weeknights, this email newsletter gives you a quick recap of the day's top stories and need-to-know news, as well as intriguing photos and topics to spark conversation as you wind down from your day.What followed was a nearly three-week battle to resurrect himself. He called Social Security two or three times a day for two weeks, with each call put on hold and then eventually disconnected. Finally someone answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he got a call delaying that to March 24.In a huff, he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown. It’s one of the buildings proposed to be closed under what the AP called “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.”It was like a Depression-era scene, he said, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The employees were kind but beleaguered.“They are so understaffed down there,” he said. “They think the office is about to be closed down, and they don’t know where they’re going to go. It feels like the agency’s being gutted.”
>>1392426>>1392427After waiting for four hours, Johnson admits he jumped the line: “I saw an opening and I kind of rushed up and told them I was listed as dead. That seemed to get their attention.”Once in front of a human, Johnson said he was able to quickly prove he was alive, using his passport and his gift of gab. They pledged to fix his predicament, and on Thursday this past week, the bank called to say it had returned the deducted deposits to his account. As of Friday morning he hadn’t received February or March’s benefits payments.“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,” he said.What’s concerning is that no one has been able to tell him how he ended up in the agency’s “death master file.” Had he been conflated with some other poor Leonard Johnson? Was he flagged as dead by a credit agency or the electronic funds transfer system, which then ricocheted back to Social Security? Was it simple input error? Nobody knows. Or nobody’s saying.Social Security blandly labels this sort of event an “erroneous death determination.”Johnson said his takeaway is that Social Security needs help — with its databases, but especially with enough staffing to answer the phones. The announced plan from the new administration is to cut 7,000 employees. This past week, the news outlet ProPublica reported on a recording of a meeting in which the director, a Trump appointee, suggested ominously that DOGE’s suggested changes could cause the agency to collapse.The director also debunked the idea that dead people are being used to fraudulently claim benefits in any widespread manner — as both Musk and Trump keep claiming.There are 110-year-old and older people in one of databases, the director said, but those people are “not in pay status — they’re not actually being paid benefits. These are records we never bothered with.”
>>1392426>>1392427>>1392428For his part, Johnson says he felt the agency was super-aggressive in the opposite direction. Money was unilaterally deducted from his bank account before he even had a chance to react to the news of his untimely death. People living check to check could be decimated, he said.“I’m OK with mistakes being made,” he said. “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.”Said his wife Pam: “You sort of have no choice but to laugh it off. But it seems like it’s going to get worse.”For now, Ned Johnson is hopeful he has a new lease on life. But does he?Agents cautioned him that once you’re tagged as dead in the electronic morgue, it floats in the ether and can haunt you again. It’s like there’s a ghost in the machine.Sure enough, after I met Johnson on Friday and verified he was a live human being, I went home and Googled him. One of those people-search sites popped up with a listing at his address.“Leonard A. Johnson, Seattle, WA,” it read. “Deceased.”
>>1392426>"We found all these dead people still taking social security!">"Uh, what do you mean 'you don't understand the code, it gives 150 if the data is incomplete', obviously I do and I know better than you.">Turns out they're still alive Incredible.
>>1392431I thought the article was too long so I decided not to read it but then I read your comment and your extract and I decided to read the whole thing.DOGE AKA Musk decided to throw a monkey wrench into the gears of the bureaucracy. Without realizing or without caring that it was human beings that were being ground up. Incompetent and/ or a sociopath. Class action civil lawsuits need to be started against Musk and tRump. Maybe tRump is immune, but M.usk isn't
Wow, one case of incorrect data and thousands of actual dead people getting money. We should impeach Drumphf and stop DOGE
>>1392475>and thousands of actual dead people getting money.Nope.>We should impeach Drumphf and stop DOGEYup.
>>1392475this. the MSM is pulling out all the stops in their efforts to discredit Mr. Musk, DOGE, and the MAGA Movement. What its not pointing out is the literal tens of thousands of other cases of actual dead people receiving money. Go ahead, MSM, balls in your park, track down every single one of those people and prove they're alive. I'll wait.
>>1392476>Nope.Yup.Seethe. You got a long 4 more years, tranny, that is if we don't decide to install an Eternal Trump Imperium
And it begins. The casual looting of people's literal hard earned money. You know those idiots will do anything to justify Elon.
>>1392477You really just can't accept that Elon is stealing money, huh
>>1392477Why'd they declare this man legally dead then? And if they screwed up here, where else have they screwed up?
>>1392426They shouldn't be getting money from the government to begin with. I say stop all SS payments and let things fall as they will. This parasites will be ended.
>>1392488Okay, but then you run into the whole "the government can't take your shit without just compensation" issue in the Constitution.Whose money do you think is in Social Security? It's not the fucking government's.>parasitesBitch, people pay into Social Security.
>>1392486Elon doesn't need to steal, hes a self made multi-billionaire that makes plenty of his own money. theft is a poor people crime, mostly committed by black skinned leftists>>1392487prove they screwed up elsewhere in a large enough number to invalidate all the actual dead people they found. balls in your park. I'll wait.
>>1392521>Elon doesn't need to stealHe literally used Tesla company funds to build his stupid fucking glass house.Also whether or not someone needs to steal has never had any fucking bearing on whether or not they do steal.>>1392521>all the actual dead people they foundGiven that there's been no documented case of someone cashing checks meant for a dead person that they've found, it seems like just the single screw up in this thread is enough proof. 1>=0. Ball's in your "court". I'll wait.
>>1392486>hes a self made multi-billionaire lol
>>1392521>prove they screwed up elsewhere in a large enough number to invalidate all the actual dead people they foundProve they found any actual dead people. And don't cite "well they said they stopped X dead people!" because that would include Mr. Johnson over here. Show some receipts from the most transparent government organization, per their own words.
>>1392556>He literally used Tesla company funds to build his stupid fucking glass house.It's his company.
>>1392566CEOs can still commit fraud you moron.
>>1392567>canDidn't.
>>1392566>It's his company.It's publicly traded you fucking idiot. That's called fucking embezzlement. There was an open criminal investigation.
>>1392573>publicly tradedMajority shareholder. His company.
>>1392426ahh yes the living 150 year olds, let me guess they're all multimillionaires frozen in some kind of cyropod somewhere.
>>1392579seriously anon, how much do you get paid to be a faggot all day? is it really worth your dignity?
>>1392579>Majority shareholder. His company.That's literally not what that means.
>>1392579Elon isn't the majority shareholder of Tesla. Not his company.
>>1392581More "82 year old guy who had the misfortune of some intern screwing up putting his birthday in".
>>1392588https://www.fool.com/investing/how-to-invest/stocks/who-owns-tesla/>Although there's no single owner of Tesla, Elon Musk is the largest owner of Tesla stock. The company, then called Tesla Motors, was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Musk hitched a ride with the company shortly after it was incorporated, providing more than $6 million in 2004 during its Series A funding round.
>>1392588he's far and away the largest share holder at about 12.8%. which is enormous for any public company let alone one floating around 800billion-1trillion marketcap. Most shareholders divest or cash out part of their shares
>>1392477Don't you mean President Musk?If you're going to be a beta cuck and deepthroat a billionaire, you might as well go all the way down.>>1392482Please post irrefutable proof that there is that type of SS fraud going on beyond what would be an acceptable statistical background rate for a population of over 300 million citizens.
>>1392591>>1392592Majority shareholder means a shareholder that owns the majority of a company. 12.8% is not 50%.Fucking idiots.
>>1392622they're shills, only idiots get hired to do their job
>>1392426>I found a dead person on Social Security. Right here in Seattle, on Capitol Hill.They're all over in belltown too.
>>1392627Even more dead ones in first Hill and the international district
>>1392627>>1392628you seem tilted shill
>>1392622majority shareholders don't exist for basically any public company you fucking retard. If you're not going to cashout you'd of kept your company private to begin with.
>>1392631so you admit you lied? rhetorical question btw
>>1392632You going to let the rest of the class know how musk committed fraud?
>>1392633i'm not explaining the meaning of the english word "rhetorical" to you but here's your chance to look it up faggot
>>1392629I'm quite fine unlike the dead hobos strewn across Seattle.I wouldn't worry about it though, trump appears to be doing a good job so far cleaning up the fentanyl epidemic that spiralled out of control under biden
>>1392632you're just showing how stupid you are so don't bother replying if you can't understand what you even asked to begin with fuck off.
>>1392643thanks for trying to copy me but you are the stupid one, and uno reverse isn't a thing in real life
>>1392644>retard asks a question>gets called out for how stupid he is>lmao you're all the stupid one oh no its you.Ok retard thanks for tripling down on showing how much of an ignorant loser you are.
>>1392638>fentanyl epidemic that spiralled out of control under bidenand Canada was in cahoots with biden on that whole operation.
>>1392631>majority shareholders don't exist for basically any public company you fucking retardI didn't say they fucking did, dipshit. This dumbfuck did when he claimed Elon could embezzle because he's majority shareholder for Tesla.>>1392579Instead of bitching about people right, call out the Elon toelicker for being delusional.
>>1392677>call out the Elon toelicker for being delusional.The side that believes chopping off your dick makes you a woman has no legs to stand on when calling others delusional.
>>1392431this 82yo man now is going to update his data and make it complete.the bank had the money to deduct. I don't care that a rich boomer was inconvenienced $5k after receiving 27 years of retirement cheques.
>>1392734>>>/twitter/
With just one example of a mistake, I wonder how many hundreds or thousands examples where they've been correct. How large was the list? Like 100 million people?
>>1392734The side that thinks a woman must have a dick because she's good at boxing has no legs to stand on when it comes to calling others delusional and shouldn't be trusted on anything regarding sex or gender.>>1392763>How large was the list? Like 100 million people?71.6 million.Also have you heard of a single arrest related to the DOGE bullshit for social security fraud? Doesn't that seem like the kind of thing they'd tout?>>1392748>this 82yo man now is going to update his data and make it complete.Being declared dead is a legal nightmare that can take literal years to resolve because there's no automatic system for correcting it, different agencies and organizations often coordinate on any death notifications, and it takes direct persistent appeals to each of them to prove you're not an impersonator. This is the sort of shit that ruins people's lives. It's not a one and done phone call and it's not a single fucking check this person's gonna be missing. It's basically legal unpersonhood.
>>1392426
