Social Security mistakenly declares Colorado woman dead

LITTLETON, Colorado – The rumors about Christine Rowe’s death were greatly exaggerated.

The 77-year-old from Littleton has spent the past few weeks trying to convince many people that she is alive after the Social Security Administration declared her dead last month.

“Social Security says I’m deceased,” she told Steve On Your Side. “My heirs know I’m alive. And I plan to be alive for quite some time. So I’m hoping you can help me.”

Rowe came home from vacation and wanted to log into her bank account to see how much she had spent. She said she couldn’t log into her account like she normally does.

“I called the bank and said I’ve been a customer for over 30 years and I can’t seem to log in,” she said. “And the woman was completely silent.”

The customer service representative said she needed to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor answered the phone.

“The manager said, ‘I’m sorry, but you’re deceased – your accounts are closed,'” she said.

Rowe went to the bank branch and asked to speak to a supervisor, who eventually told her that the Social Security Administration had listed her as deceased and closed the accounts. She provided documentation proving her identity, and the bank worked to reopen her accounts.

The bank was not the only incident.

Rowe said she had a follow-up appointment with a surgeon the next week and called to confirm details. The doctor’s office said her appointment had been canceled due to her death. A few days later, she received a letter from her Kaiser Medicare insurance company, addressed to “the estate of Christine Rowe,” offering condolences and saying her insurance had been canceled due to her death.

“Everything in my life has either been frozen or canceled because Social Security says I’m deceased,” she said. “I’ve heard of someone stealing the Social Security number, but no one is going to benefit from that.”

Rowe tried calling the Social Security Administration, but was told she had to drive to a local office, so she visited the office in Lakewood.

“It was a four-hour wait,” she said.

Rowe said the local office could only give her the date of her alleged death: October 31, 2023. The representative could not tell her how her death was reported to the administration. The representative said the issue was being resolved but did not provide any documentation.

She called Steve On Your Side at the urging of some of her Mexican train partners at her retirement home. Rowe said she was afraid her other accounts would suddenly be canceled if they saw her fake obituary.

“Another fear is the subtle things I do to people I don’t contact,” she said. “Like: Is my driver’s license valid? Is my car insurance valid?”

She also wanted to know how it happened.

For privacy reasons, the Social Security Administration would not tell Steve On Your Side what happened in Rowe’s case.

“Deaths are reported to Social Security primarily by states, but also by other sources, including family members, funeral homes, federal agencies and financial institutions,” a spokesman said in a statement.

The spokesperson told Steve On Your Side that about 3.1 million deaths are reported to the agency each year, and less than a third of one percent need to be corrected. That sounds like a small number as a percentage, but it could account for as many as 10,000 people who are mistakenly declared dead each year.

If this happens to you, the speaker recommends:

“If a person suspects that they have been incorrectly listed as deceased in their Social Security record, they should contact their local Social Security office as soon as possible. You can find the nearest Social Security office at https://www.ssa.gov/agency/contact/. You should be prepared to bring at least one original, current (not expired) ID card. Social Security will take immediate action to correct our records and we can provide you with a letter confirming the error has been corrected, which can be forwarded to other organizations.”

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