Cathy Adams took almost seven weeks to realize that he was dead.
When Charlotte’s County woman reviewed her bank account on January 29, no age safety and CPP benefits had not been deposited. Then he called Service Canada and was suspended while the government worker reviewed his file.
“When he returned, he said: ‘Sorry, they are bad news … on December 13, we received a death warning for you. My condolences.”
Adams said they both laughed out of the ridicule of the exchange.
“I said: ‘Am I what? Am I dead?'”
Adams was so incredulous when he got out of the phone he called back and spoke with another person.
“And they said no, that I was dead. And my benefits have not been canceled, but rather finished, which is more difficult to bring back.”
In the first days, Adams made almost two dozen telephone calls, some lasted more than an hour, and three trips to the Service Canada office in St. Stephen.
After noticing that his safety of old age and the benefits of CPP had not been deposited, Cathy Adams called Service Canada and told him that the agency received its death warning in December.
“Usually, I laugh and say that I would like to return to life again, please. Or, I am dead and we have to fix this … there has been a lot of silence at the end of the lines: the silence of disbelief.”
Depending on who he talked to, he obtained two different responses. One said it was the result of an administrative error and the other said that someone who said to be her niece had denounced her dead. Adams said he did not recognize the name provided by the person he called.
The employment and social development of Canada declined to provide an interview, but in a statement sent by email, he said that “human error” is the culprit.
“Service Canada has taken corrective measures to solve this problem and assured that the benefits have been restored. There is no fraud or fraud in this case,” Samuelle Carbonneau wrote.
The department was asked more details. On Tuesday afternoon, another official responded by saying that it was “an incorrectly admitted transaction in the archive of Mrs. Adams derived from a separate application he had done.”
Adams, however, said he did “absolutely no request.”
Recovering his life
Meanwhile, Adams said that recovering his life has proven to be more complicated than he expected.
While his old age safety has already been deposited in his account, he will not receive his CPP until February 18, and he still cannot access his Service Canada account.
But the real headache, it has been told, will be its social security number.
On Tuesday, he was asked to provide his marriage certificate, “but they have separated me for 30 years, so I didn’t really have that.
“However, I had my separation agreement … and the girl here said: ‘I think that will work’, it was not 100 % sure, but thought that would work.”
Although their benefits were restored, their immediate objective, their long -term concern is that their identity has been compromised.
“If you can’t give me an explanation and tell me exactly what happened, do I suppose my identity has been compromised?”
And if so, “what do I have to change? I don’t want to start changing things at random without knowing exactly what happened.”
Cause of death not unique
Adams lost even more confidence in Canada’s service after she had a little online research and found several similar cases in recent years.
“I discovered that this has happened to numerous people, older people in particular,” he said.
“One or two should be a red flag that someone is not careful or that there is some fraud. But certainly you cannot have so many administrative errors.”
Carbonneau said that the department does not monitor the frequency with which people declare themselves dead by mistake, but that it is “exceptionally rare for an individual to be declared incorrectly deceased and that pension payments are stopped by error.”
Normally, the Canada service requires “proof of the death date of the beneficiary,” said Carbonneau, which includes full name, date of birth, death date, social security number (if known), previous address and name and address and address of the heritage or the person responsible for handling the matters of the deceased.
‘I missed my trail, I didn’t receive flowers’
Adams also wonders why he has had to work so hard to correct another person’s mistake.
“I find it difficult to believe that I have to provide documents to obtain a new [social insurance] Number to try to correct an error that apparently committed it. “
But along the way, she also had a little fun with the situation.
“You have to retire things … you can’t be angry at that. You just have to deal with that, but you still have to maintain a sense of humor because it is ridiculous.”
He had a little fun telling the people “that I died and returned to life.”
He also jokes about choosing another birthday for his next life, or even a new year, perhaps one much later than his original.
“Do you know what I really wanted? I wanted to know if they obtained a death certificate and wanted a copy because I wanted to frame it and have a party.”
After all, “I missed my trail, I didn’t receive any flowers.”
