Imagine waking up one morning to find that the government has declared you dead. No, this isn’t a bad joke. This is exactly what happened to 82-year-old Ned Johnson in Seattle. The mistake, triggered by an electronic error in the Social Security Administration’s system, nearly wiped out his savings and left him fighting to prove he was still alive.
According to The Seattle Times, it all started in February when a letter from his bank addressed to his wife, Pam, read: “We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing.” The couple was initially confused, thinking it was a scam. After all, Ned was sitting right there. But as they read further, they were informed that Social Security had instructed the bank to return benefits paid to Ned’s account because, according to their records, he was dead. The bank deducted $5,201 from their account—money that was meant for Ned’s Social Security payments for December and January.
The nightmare didn’t end there. Ned’s February Social Security check was canceled, and his Medicare insurance was cut off. Even worse, his credit score was marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” making it impossible for him to take out a loan or make financial moves.
“You wake up one day and discover you’re dead,” Ned said. “It’s been truly surreal.”
As if this wasn’t unsettling enough, no one could tell him exactly how he ended up in the government’s “death master file.” Was it a clerical error? An issue with credit agencies or the electronic funds transfer system? No one knew. All he could do was try to prove he was alive, which became a frustrating and time-consuming process.
For nearly three weeks, Ned and Pam fought to resolve the issue. He made multiple calls to Social Security each day, but most of the time, he was put on hold or disconnected. Finally, he made the trek to the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown, where Social Security employees were clearly overwhelmed and understaffed. “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,” Ned said after witnessing the chaotic scene.
Eventually, after hours of waiting, Ned managed to get someone’s attention by telling them he was, in fact, very much alive. He proved his existence with his passport, and the staff promised to fix the mistake. The next week, his bank called to say they had returned the deducted funds. But as of that Friday, he still hadn’t received his February or March Social Security checks.
The larger problem, though, goes beyond just one person’s case. Ned’s ordeal highlights significant flaws in the system—flaws that were likely exacerbated by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting proposals under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk and others have claimed that the Social Security Administration is filled with dead people fraudulently receiving benefits. But according to Social Security director, these claims are exaggerated. “These are records we never bothered with,” the director said, referring to people over 110 years old who aren’t actually receiving benefits.
However, the error in Ned’s case seems to have been a direct result of DOGE’s push to streamline and cut costs at the Social Security Administration. Musk’s suggested cuts, intended to reduce staffing and “improve efficiency,” appear to have worsened the system’s reliability. With fewer employees, crucial mistakes like Ned’s can go unchecked, causing real harm to people who depend on Social Security to survive. In fact, Social Security’s own understaffing made it extremely difficult for Ned to get the attention he needed to prove he was alive.
“There’s nothing you need to do—they’ve deducted the funds from your account.” That’s what the bank told Ned, but no one asked for his side of the story. The mistake left him vulnerable, especially since many people rely on Social Security to live. As Ned said, “If I was living solely off Social Security, I could be close to dumpster diving about now.”
In the end, he got his money back—but what about others who might not have the resources to fight the system?
“I’m OK with mistakes being made,” Ned 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.”
Ned’s wife, Pam, summed it up perfectly: “You sort of have no choice but to laugh it off. But it seems like it’s going to get worse.” The Johnsons were lucky they had the time and energy to chase down the truth. But in a broken system with looming budget cuts, how many others will be left to navigate the same nightmare alone?
For now, Ned Johnson is back to life—but will the government’s digital “death” tag continue to haunt him? As he found out, once you’re labeled “deceased” in the electronic system, it’s not so easy to shake the label. Even after the issue was resolved, a search for his name online still came up with a grim result: “Deceased.”
