Clerical errors in the Social Security Administration report thousands of living people as dead

The Social Security Administration each month falsely reports that nearly 1,200 living Americans have died.

These clerical errors, found in a federal database ominously titled the “Death Master File,” might be darkly humorous — evoking Mark Twain’s famous quip that death reports can be greatly exaggerated — were not the consequences so severe.

Thomas Hargrove with Scripps Howard News Service talks with one woman who has had such luck. ” “It has just been one thing right after another since I found out that I was dead,” said an unsmiling Judy C. Rivers, 58, of Jasper, Ala. “Right now, I am still looking for a job. I hate to give out my Social Security number because I know exactly what is going to happen.”