It's Hard Getting Work When The Government Says You're Dead

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. If you go by Social Security numbers, there are six-and-a-half million Americans who are 112 years or older. Obviously, most are zombie security numbers. And then there are the living, breathing people like Judy Rivers, who testified before a Senate committee yesterday, saying that she had trouble getting a job after being declared dead by the Social Security Administration. She was accidentally placed in the agency's death master file. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.