Man falsely declared dead by Social Security still dealing with fallout, he says

An 82-year-old man in Seattle woke up feeling very much alive until he and his wife opened a letter from his bank stating he was deceased.

Ned Johnson was mistakenly declared dead, which led to the cancellation of his Social Security benefits. It took him two months to prove the mistake, including numerous phone calls, letters to government officials and enduring a four-hour wait at his local Social Security office, he said.

And he told ABC News the problem is continuing to follow him.

"I've since learned that I'm on the Death Master File that apparently is going to chase me for the rest of my life," Johnson told ABC News. "It means that when Social Security declared me as deceased, there's a file that's kept ... that I'm listed on and, apparently, it doesn't go away. So we're struggling with a few issues now that are starting to crop up since we started this whole thing."

The trouble began when Johnson's wife, Pam Johnson, received a letter from Bank of America in February expressing condolences for her husband's alleged death in November.

"First, I thought it was a scam because it was just a little letter, and they also attached a couple of documents for me to fill out to send back to Bank of America's estate division," she told ABC News. "So I verified that it was the estate division and the phone number was correct. And then the second letter we got right after that was showing that debit to our checking account."

The situation finally began to be sorted out after Johnson visited his local Social Security Administration office. Ned Johnson said he thought his troubles were over, but he added, "This thing follows you follows you like a bad smell."

He started receiving his Social Security checks once again, but he's now facing another problem -- the checks are coming but they've started to deduct some.

Pam Johnson said she and her husband are very lucky to be financially stable to make do with several missed checks. But others won't be so lucky.

"I think the more important story is the people who do rely on it ... the majority of people, a lot of them on Social Security, particularly at our age that really don't have the wherewithal to navigate the system," she said. "So for some people, it just would be impossible."

The Johnsons' ordeal comes as the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have targeted purported fraud in the Social Security system, including checks allegedly sent to deceased people.

Among changes Social Security recently announced intended to combat waste and fraud, recipients will soon have to verify their bank details in person or online, instead of over the phone.

"My advice would be, watch your bank account and be prepared to -- if you get tagged with one of these issues -- it's going to take some time," Ned Johnson said. "And you just have to be patient and persistent if you expect to get anywhere."

ABC News reached out to the Social Security Administration for comment on the Johnsons' situation, but the agency said privacy laws precluded it from discussing specific cases.

The agency pointed to a March 16 press release stating that 3 million deaths are reported to the agency every year and that less than one-third of 1% are erroneously reported.