Resurrection Cases

Most of the readers of this blog are well aware of just how big the Social Security Administration is. I thought that I would post a little something to give an idea of Social Security's size to any who do not fully appreciate the agency's size. Here is a little excerpt from a recent transmittal from Social Security's Program Operations Manual Series (POMS):

Erroneous death cases are very sensitive. A termination of SSI benefits due to death does not require a notice and can result in severe financial hardship and distress to the recipient. Loss of Medicaid benefits and other assistance based on SSI may occur. Unless the death termination was caused by an obvious administrative error, a person must show acceptable identifying information (ID) to have benefits reinstated. We must offer assistance as needed to help obtain proof of ID and process reinstatement of benefits expeditiously.

The transmittal goes on to talk about what proof of lack of death is acceptable and how the "resurrection" is accomplished. This transmittal concerns SSI benefits, but there are similar instructions concerning benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act.

One might wonder why Social Security needs written instructions concerning this sort of event. Surely, it cannot happen that often. No, in a sense it does not happen that often. I would give a wild guess that it might happen to less than one claimant in 100,000 per year, which really is a pretty good error rate. The problem is that with about one person in five in this country drawing Social Security benefits that is still a lot of erroneous death terminations. There are many press reports each year about these cases, even though most cases remain unreported in the media. There are many dozens of these events a year, perhaps hundreds, so Social Security needs staff instructions.