Credit: SWNS / Jeff Athey
A man says he was declared dead by social security and tax officials - which left him unable to drive, vote or claim tax returns for four years.
Jeff Athey, now 28, was stated as passed away by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2017.
Jeff, a writer, actor and producer from New York City, had to fight for several years to get "legally resurrected".
From 2017 to 2021, Jeff was unable to renew his driving licence, which meant he couldn't drive.
His voter registration was removed, leaving him unable to cast his vote in the 2018 midterm elections.
And whilst able to pay taxes, he couldn't claim tax returns.
Jeff first realised he had been declared dead when his tax return was denied in March 2019.
He immediately went to a local SSA office and was met with an employee who had no idea how to carry out his request.
A man says he was declared dead by social security and tax officials - which left him unable to drive, vote or claim tax returns for four years.
Jeff Athey, now 28, was stated as passed away by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2017.
Jeff, a writer, actor and producer from New York City, had to fight for several years to get "legally resurrected".
From 2017 to 2021, Jeff was unable to renew his driving licence, which meant he couldn't drive.
His voter registration was removed, leaving him unable to cast his vote in the 2018 midterm elections.
And whilst able to pay taxes, he couldn't claim tax returns.
Jeff first realised he had been declared dead when his tax return was denied in March 2019.
He immediately went to a local SSA office and was met with an employee who had no idea how to carry out his request.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:16 On May 19th, 2017, I was declared deceased by the Social Security Administration.
00:21 Since then, I've spent the last four years trying to convince the United States government that I am, unfortunately, still alive.
00:28 Well, apparently, you have been marked as deceased in your computer system, and I was advised to come here so that you might be able to help resurrect me.
00:35 Do you happen to have any proof that you are who you say you are?
00:38 Here's my birth certificate, state ID, passport.
00:41 I'll fix this, and you should be all set in about two to three weeks.
00:44 [Music]
00:57 So at this point, I have been legally resurrected, but the IRS still doesn't believe me.
01:02 Thank you for calling the IRS. Now, why did you do that to yourself?
01:06 Because I'm not dead.
01:08 Huh. That's weird.
01:10 [Music]
01:22 How and why were you declared dead?
01:25 Well, nobody really knows for sure.
01:28 However, the best guess is that somebody close to my Social Security number passed away, and so when inputting into the system, somebody made an oopsie and, well, killed me instead.
01:39 [Music]
01:45 (upbeat music)
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]