
What It’s Like to Be Declared Dead by the Government - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/what-its-like-to-be-declared-dead-by-the/
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reuven
The real problem, as described in this article, is that it's all too easy for
someone to enter the wrong number. There is no checksum digit on the Social
Security Numbers, so if someone accidentally types a 1 instead of a 2, the
wrong person is declared dead.

Given this, it's amazing that the error rate is so low. I also have to assume
that given the size of the United States, and the number of computer systems
that expect a certain format of SSN, that the odds of adding a checksum digit
are basically zero. Which means that these errors will continue for some time,
and that the only solution is basically for the Social Security Administration
to double- and triple-check reported deaths.

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jug
Many countries do use checksum digits, but I just found that Denmark is an
interesting case where they no longer (!) require or use checksums that were
previously mandatory. The reason is supposedly an increasing number of
immigrants with uncertain dates who're then registered as born on January 1,
or the first day in a month. Now that's a funny case of having to abandon best
practices.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Wow, that's interesting. I wonder why they didn't just assign random birth
dates to them?

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jkot
> _some 2.8 million per year. Considering this, their annual 12,000 erroneous
> death declarations amounts to an error rate of less than 1%._

I would say this is very very high ratio.

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thret
For a humorous take on this situation, may I recommend reading Catch 22.

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junto
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the social security number isn't
actually unique. Is that true?

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zyxley
From what I understand, they're _supposed_ to be unique, but there are
millions of cases where one person has more than one SSN, the same SSN is
accidentally or intentionally used by multiple people, etc.
[http://www.computerworld.com/article/2552992/it-
management/n...](http://www.computerworld.com/article/2552992/it-
management/not-so-unique.html)

There are also plenty of people who just plain don't have social security
numbers, like the Old Order Amish.

