Ah, Government Bureaucracy At It’s Finest

[Natsumi]

Here comes a story from the small town of Port Townsend here in Washington state where I live, of a woman who had to fight with the Social Security Administration to get her benefits since it appears she was being listed as deceased.

She was declared dead – but she’s as alive as you and I.

Her name is Maxine Matsui. She is a semi-retired 55 year old grocery store manager and never thought she'd see this day ever come.

I found this article in the local newspaper today so I thought I would share with you all.

Just last month, she was aghast to learn that she was dead. In fact, she had been declared dead for more than a month.

“I’m on the computer and am in the Social Security death index, and I’m scanning down and all of the sudden, whoa!” she said. “There’s my name, Maxine Matsui, where I was born, when I died.”

Matsui was quickly cut off from bank accounts, medicare and more.

Ancestry Web sites even publicly listed her presumably ‘dearly departed’ Social Security number – that was still active.

“Every account I had was frozen, no matter where it was at,” she said. “I was left with just pocket change.”

Since then she and her husband have collected hundreds of documents, made endless trips to social security offices, and spent hours on the phone with government workers who finally solved the riddle.

They traced the error to a clerk in Spokane typing in the wrong nine digit number.

A spokesman for Social Security says Matsui's record has been corrected. They’ve since apologized, but Maxine thinks it’s something that could’ve easily been avoided.

“To the Social Security Administration, you’re nothing but a number,” Combes said. “And when that number goes in, they should research it a little better.”

BTW - her assets are still frozen. While there as no malice in this woman’s story all it took was a simple error with a number being entered and this woman had to jump through hoops to prove she was still alive. For anyone who has had identity theft happen to them you know that this is one of the hardest things to fight as it seems you are always dealing with issues depending on the severity.

Government bureaucracy it’s fantastic!!! Guess which group believes the government can take care of issues?

 

[DiveCon]

yes, makes me want to have the government control MORE of our lives

right?

 

[Modbert]

yes, makes me want to have the government control MORE of our lives

right?

So you want private companies to have all our social security numbers instead of the government?

Seriously though, I don't think anyone ever said the system was ever perfect. The better question is how many people has this happened to out of how many and how it can be better prevented in the future.

Least, it's a better solution instead of saying "WELL NO MOAR GOVERNMENT!"

 

[Modbert]

yes, makes me want to have the government control more of our lives

right?

 

[Bfgrn]

It is not just 'government' or 'bureaucracy'...

It is a false belief that computers can't lie. When the truth is computers can't think or make decisions. They are only as reliable and accurate as the person that entered the data.

I had a clerk at a local restaurant chain argue with me over the price of a soup/sandwich combo. The special price was on a big sign hanging right above this person's head, but the computerized cash register came up with a different price when she entered the 'code'.

I finally had to ask for the manager to resolve it, because the clerk refused to.

 

[Modbert]

It is not just 'government' or 'bureaucracy'...

It is a false belief that computers can't lie. When the truth is computers can't think or make decisions. They are only as reliable and accurate as the person that entered the data.

I had a clerk at a local restaurant chain argue with me over the price of a soup/sandwich combo. The special price was on a big sign hanging right above this person's head, but the computerized cash register came up with a different price when she entered the 'code'.

I finally had to ask for the manager to resolve it, because the clerk refused to.

There is that too. I've seen several situations come up where human error combined with computers ended up making for difficult situations later on. Luckily none personally.

 

[DiveCon]

yes, makes me want to have the government control MORE of our lives

right?

So you want private companies to have all our social security numbers instead of the government?

Seriously though, I don't think anyone ever said the system was ever perfect. The better question is how many people has this happened to out of how many and how it can be better prevented in the future.

Least, it's a better solution instead of saying "WELL NO MOAR GOVERNMENT!"

you must be drinking tonight
cause your reading comprehensions SUCKS

 

[Modbert]

you must be drinking tonight
cause your reading comprehensions SUCKS

You know I don't drink Dive.

The first part was sarcastic, as was the last part. Second part was serious.

 

[Natsumi]

It is not just 'government' or 'bureaucracy'...

It is a false belief that computers can't lie. When the truth is computers can't think or make decisions. They are only as reliable and accurate as the person that entered the data.

I had a clerk at a local restaurant chain argue with me over the price of a soup/sandwich combo. The special price was on a big sign hanging right above this person's head, but the computerized cash register came up with a different price when she entered the 'code'.

I finally had to ask for the manager to resolve it, because the clerk refused to.

Yeah but i'd say this is just a bit different than comparing that to a woman who had her funds frozen. as oppossed to a soup and sandwich combo..no offense..but you could of chosen a better analogy, dontcha think?

 

[Greenbeard]

Here comes a story from the small town of Port Townsend here in Washington state where I live, of a woman who had to fight with the Social Security Administration to get her benefits since it appears she was being listed as deceased.

She was declared dead – but she’s as alive as you and I. Her name is Maxine Matsui. She is a semi-retired 55 year old grocery store manager and never thought she'd see this day ever come.

[...]

Matsui was quickly cut off from bank accounts, medicare and more.

For their next case, perhaps they should figure out why a 55-year-old is drawing Social Security and Medicare benefits.

 

[editec]

Yeah thank GOD private insurance companies never make mistakes, eh?

 

[Mad Scientist]

Yeah thank GOD private insurance companies never make mistakes, eh?

I would rather deal with a private company than a government leviathan that I can't sue.

 

[Foxfyre]

The 55-year-old part caught my eye too, especially when she is described as semi-retired, and that could underscore one of several reasons social security is in trouble. But that is not really the point being made here, and would make a good subject for another thread.

The casual and careless way that much of our personal information is handled should be a concern for every American. Did you ever wonder how easy it is for the media, looking for stuff to smear somebody, to learn who has tax problems, who has been audited, who has been investigated, etc. etc. etc.? Doesn't it bother you at all that such information is readily available to be put out there for public consumption? There are all sorts of examples we could use like that.

Identity theft is done mostly by thieves who wish to enrich themselves at your expense. But there are also some folks who naively think that illegals using our social security number are not a problem. They are actually paying into our account, right? But they are also acquiring a history that you might not want associated with your number, and if they die and are reported dead by an employer or whatever, or by a spouse wanting to collect the tiny death benefit, that can seriously complicate things for you on down the road.

I have run across illegals using three, four, five different social security numbers. Some are furnished to them by phony document/identity services; some are simply lifted from something else, and some are made up out of thin air. But the chances that somebody else is using your social security number get better all the time.

Wouldn't it be nice if the government was focused on methods to solve that problem, on ways to protect our critical data, and ways to prevent illegal use of the system instead of so much of the nonsense they are focused on?

 

[Madeline]

Well, hopefully they won't solve the problem by hiring WikiLeaks.

 

[Natsumi]

Here comes a story from the small town of Port Townsend here in Washington state where I live, of a woman who had to fight with the Social Security Administration to get her benefits since it appears she was being listed as deceased.

She was declared dead – but she’s as alive as you and I. Her name is Maxine Matsui. She is a semi-retired 55 year old grocery store manager and never thought she'd see this day ever come.

[...]

Matsui was quickly cut off from bank accounts, medicare and more.

For their next case, perhaps they should figure out why a 55-year-old is drawing Social Security and Medicare benefits.

you make a good point there..I saw that too..I have not been living here in the US for long so I don't know how Soc. Security works. I dont know if my local paper made a mistake but im sure they didn't.

 

[DiveCon]

Here comes a story from the small town of Port Townsend here in Washington state where I live, of a woman who had to fight with the Social Security Administration to get her benefits since it appears she was being listed as deceased.

She was declared dead – but she’s as alive as you and I. Her name is Maxine Matsui. She is a semi-retired 55 year old grocery store manager and never thought she'd see this day ever come.

[...]

Matsui was quickly cut off from bank accounts, medicare and more.

For their next case, perhaps they should figure out why a 55-year-old is drawing Social Security and Medicare benefits.

could be that she had to retire because of a disability

 

[Natsumi]

The casual and careless way that much of our personal information is handled should be a concern for every American. Did you ever wonder how easy it is for the media, looking for stuff to smear somebody, to learn who has tax problems, who has been audited, who has been investigated, etc. etc. etc.? Doesn't it bother you at all that such information is readily available to be put out there for public consumption? There are all sorts of examples we could use like that.

I've been living here in the U.S. for almost 5 years (this April I take citizenship exam) and you make some good points that are easy for me to understand. I learn new pieces about how things work everyday (and why they're not working so well too)

 

[jillian]

funny... your english was much better when you were ranting raving and cursing.

 

[DiveCon]

funny... your english was much better when you were ranting raving and cursing.

be nice

 

[jillian]

funny... your english was much better when you were ranting raving and cursing.

be nice

that was nice.