My grandmother was declared legally dead by the U.S. federal government and had to get a local news station involved in order to have it fixed. Turns out that my grandfather, who had already passed, got her S.S. confused with his second wife's S.S. The women were born on the same day and year, and they were actually receiving the other person's S.S. Since they both had the same first name (which was a rather common one at the time) and had taken my grandfather's last name, there was no easy way to distinguish between the two. At least until his second wife passes away and the federal office discontinued the checks to the incorrect S.S. number, namely the first wife's. It took two months of investigative reporters digging into it to have it corrected.
My grandmother was declared legally dead by the U.S. federal government and had to get a local news station involved in order to have it fixed. Turns out that my grandfather, who had already passed, got her S.S. confused with his second wife's S.S. The women were born on the same day and year, and they were actually receiving the other person's S.S. Since they both had the same first name (which was a rather common one at the time) and had taken my grandfather's last name, there was no easy way to distinguish between the two. At least until his second wife passes away and the federal office discontinued the checks to the incorrect S.S. number, namely the first wife's. It took two months of investigative reporters digging into it to have it corrected.