First Posted: 2/20/2015
PANDORA — Jim Hight, a 54-year-old Pandora resident, is a seemingly likable guy who enjoys the outdoors, has a full-time job and enjoys exercising.
The only problem, is in the eyes of the government, he’s technically dead.
The Social Security Administration has listed Hight as “deceased” as of Jan. 5, with no further details explaining how he apparently died, or where.
Earlier this month, Hight received a letter from his pension plan through his employer stating that through routine checks in their system, they noticed the issue with his account.
The pension company sent Hight a letter notifying him of the issue and that he had 21 days to respond.
Meanwhile, Hight began receiving letters from his bank, where he has his car loan. The letters said “that they send their deepest condolences, but, again, please pay this loan off,” Hight said.
Hight also received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service stating that only his next of kin could receive his federal tax return this year and would have to fill out a special form to do so. However, Hight received his state tax return last week.
Since then, Hight has been in contact with the IRS, notifying them that he is in fact, alive.
“Then, they said it would take an extra four weeks to get my return back,” Hight said.
To try to address the issue, Hight visited the Social Security Administration office in Lima. He said the representative he spoke with suggested a mistake could have been made at that agency or at a funeral home. A funeral director could have made a mistake when typing a Social Security number, attaching his number to a dead person.
“I asked them, ‘Isn’t your name (of the deceased) supposed to match with your (Social Security) number?’,” Hight said to the clerk.
He says he was told, “No, we just go by the numbers.”
The Lima branch of the SSA said they are not authorized to comment on the issue.
Jennifer Jenkins, IRS field media relations contact, said though she couldn’t speak on Hight’s case specifically, she said the SSA uses a database called the Social Security Death Master File, a network that provides information to various professionals for information.
On the website for the SSDMF, it reads, “The SSA does not have a death record for all persons; therefore, SSA does not guarantee the veracity of the file.”
