LITTLETON, Colo. — Rumors of Christine Rowe’s death were greatly exaggerated.
The 77-year-old from Littleton has spent the past few weeks trying to persuade many people that she’s alive after the Social Security Administration declared her dead last month.
“According to Social Security, I am deceased,” she told Steve On Your Side. “My heirs know that I'm alive. And I plan to stay that way for quite some time. That’s why I’m hoping you can help me.”
Rowe returned home from a vacation and wanted to log into her bank account to see how much she had spent. She said the account wouldn’t let her log in as she always had.
“I called the bank and I said, you know, I've been a customer for 30 some odd years and I can't sign seem to sign on,” she said. “And the gal went dead quiet.”
The customer service representative said she had to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor came on the line.
“The supervisor said, well, I'm sorry, but you’re deceased – your accounts are closed,” she said.
Rowe went to the bank branch and asked to speak with a supervisor, who eventually told her that the Social Security Administration had listed her as deceased, which closed the accounts. She presented documentation that she was who she said she was and the bank worked to reopen her accounts.
The bank wasn’t the only fallout.
Rowe said she had a follow-up appointment with a surgeon the next week and called to confirm details. The doctor’s office said her appointment had been canceled due to her death. A few days later, she got a letter from her Kaiser Medicare plan addressed to “the Estate of Christine Rowe,” offering condolences and informing her that her plan had been canceled due to her death.
“Everything in my life has either been frozen or canceled, because Social Security says I'm deceased,” she said. “I've heard of someone who has stolen the Social Security number, but there's nobody that's going to benefit from this.”
Rowe tried to call the Social Security Administration but was told she had to travel to a local office. So she visited the location in Lakewood.
“That was a four-hour wait,” she said.
Rowe said the local office could only tell her the date of her supposed death: Oct. 31, 2023. The representative couldn’t tell her how her death was reported to the administration. The representative said the problem would be fixed but didn’t provide any documentation.
On the urging of some of her Mexican train partners in her retirement community, she called Steve On Your Side. Rowe said she worries about her other accounts suddenly canceling if they see her fake death notice.
“Another fear is the subtle things that people that I'm not remembering to contact,” she said. “Like is my driver's license valid? Is my car insurance valid?”
She also wanted to know how it happened.
The Social Security Administration wouldn’t tell Steve On Your Side what happened in Rowe’s case, citing privacy concerns.
“Deaths are reported to Social Security primarily from the states but also from other sources, including family members, funeral homes, federal agencies and financial institutions,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson told Steve On Your Side that about 3.1 million deaths are reported to the agency each year and less than a third of a percent need to be corrected. That sounds like a small number as a percentage but could be as many at 10,000 people accidentally declared dead each year.
If this happens to you, the spokesperson suggests:
“If a person suspects that they have been incorrectly listed as deceased on their Social Security record, they should contact their local Social Security office as soon as possible. They can locate their nearest Social Security office at https://www.ssa.gov/agency/contact/. They should be prepared to bring at least one piece of current (not expired) original form of identification. Social Security takes immediate action to correct our records and we can provide a letter that the error has been corrected that can be shared with other organizations.”
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