>From: "Joan Best" >When his check was not deposited in his account [I am the payee] I >called SS to find out why. They said he had been reported deceased >and that was why. I have also experienced an incident somewhat like this before concerning my now 13 year old daughter. She has the same name as one of her grandmother's. At one point, when my daughter was only 8, we lived with her Grandmother while she was ill. During our stay, grandma passed away. A year later, my daughter's father's health insurance changed and when we signed up, we received a nasty letter from the insurance company stating that we were fraudulently trying to get medical benefits for someone who was deceased. After 3 months of trying to prove that my daughter was not deceased, we found out that Social Security had sent a earnings report to my daughter (she had been "working" by receiving money from a medical research program, and taxes were deducted). Social Security claims the mail was returned with "deceased" written across the front of the envelope. The forwarding address order had expired by that time also. The new owners of grandma's home knew she was deceased, and of course knew her name, but had no idea an 8 yr old would be receiving anything from social security, nor did they know my daughter had the same name. It took us another 2 months to clear things up with Social Security. We had to go as far as getting a letter from both states that we had lived in, stating that a death certificate had not been filed on my daughter's behalf, having 2 relatives and 2 non related individuals signing affidavits saying she was alive, provide school records, and medical records. Taking her to their office in person, along with her School picture ID, a birth certificate, a report card and bottle of her prescribed medication wasn't enough to satisfy them. All in all, it took us nearly 6 months and $8000 before getting health coverage on my daughter, (she ended up having her tonsils removed during the time she was uninsured). I thought we had finally taken care of the situation but... Strangly enough, i tried to get my daughter a Teen Visa just a few weeks ago, and was denied because her credit report, which I have no idea why they even checked it, still indicates that she is deceased. I called the credit bureaus, and as it turns out, Experian is the one who still has her listed as deceased. So, I am in the process now of getting that cleared up. Oh, and as for Social Security utilizing a forwarding address...well, that didn't happen right away for us. After finding out that Social Security was involved in this entire fiasco, I contacted them by phone, mail and in person. Each time I made sure they had our correct address. The first 3 correspondences they sent us concerning our problem were sent to the old address! I hadn't heard from them with in an acceptable time frame, so I called to find out what was going on, they once again said the mail they sent had been returned. Kimber For a listing of obituaries I have on hand for St. Joseph Cty, IN, visit: http://hometown.aol.com/k727h/index.html k727h@aol.com (Kimber)