Hello.

Hi, Mr. Johnson. How are you?

I'm fine. Thank you.

This is Ned Johnson. He's 82 years old and lives with his wife in Seattle, Washington.

My wife got the first notice from Bank of America with their condolences over my death.

As you can hear, Ned Johnson is very much alive.

Two days later, we got a second notice from the bank declaring that the Social Security

had deducted $5,200 from our checking account.

Johnson was mistakenly put on what is called the Death Master File and now had to convince

the Social Security Administration that he wasn't dead.

That process likely hasn't ever been very fun or easy, but these days it's a full-time

job.

I discovered after 50-some-odd phone calls trying to get through

and was put on hold for two hours at a time,

and then the phone would go dead, and he'd have to start all over again.

Johnson finally got through and was given an in-person appointment six weeks later.

Instead of waiting a month and a half, he decided he'd visit his local

Social Security office in person. I was ushered into the room by three armed guards and sat with

some 50-odd people. So I sat there for six or eight hours that day, and I realized that I was never going to get to the front of the line to see one of about three or four caseworkers.

Their office facility has about 30 or 40 workstations and only had three or four agents.

As he puts it, Johnson got lucky.

As soon as a window opened up, he ran over and told the agent,

...