An elderly Maryland woman's life has been completely upended after the Social Security Administration incorrectly listed her as dead in government records - cutting the 89-year-old off from her bank, Medicare and retirement checks.
Joyce Evans' struggles began the day after Christmas when she received a letter from the Social Security Administration extending their "condolences on the passing away of Joyce G. Evans."
Evans said that she initially thought the letter was a "joke" but the next day she received a notice from her bank saying her account was empty, WBAL reported.
"I said, 'I'm not dead. I'm still alive,'" Evans told WBAL.
Despite her protests, the grandmother was swiftly cut off from Medicare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, her credit cards, retirement checks and the IRS. And while she was rapidly denied these services, rectifying the situation has taken months.
"We went to Social Security and I asked the lady, 'How did this happen?' And, she said, 'Well, I guess an employee just hit the wrong button,'" Evans told WBAL. "I said, 'Who told you I was dead?' And, she said, 'Oh, yeah, family members call us and the undertaker calls us, different people call us.' I said, 'Well, I'm calling you now and I'm alive.'"
Evans and her son have visited a Social Security office five times - while issues with her incorrect status continue to mount. She now owes thousands of dollars to Baltimore Washington Medical Center because Medicare won't cover expenses. Her water bill was nearly shut off because the automatic payments from her bank account no longer go through.
"I freaked out a little bit," Evans told WBAL. "My other son paid that water bill for me so they wouldn't turn off my water because I need that for my equipment, my oxygen equipment."
One of her sons is now her full-time caregiver because her home health aid company won't send a nurse to a patient who is legally dead.
The former federal government employee also says that she is owed more than $12,000 in her monthly pension payments. Evans says that she got a letter from the Social Security Administration apologizing for what happened - but the situation is still not rectified.
"Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible. I can't sleep at night of constantly worried about these kind of things. You know, paying the bills," she told WBAL. "This is not something that they need to do to people. At my age? All my life, I pay my bills all the time, and this is just about killing me."
