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Americans are getting older, but not this old: Social Security records show that 6.5 million people in the U.S. have reached the ripe old age of 112. In reality, only a few could possibly be alive. As of last fall, there were only 42 people known to be that old in the entire world.
But Social Security does not have death records for millions of these people, with the oldest born in 1869, according to a report by the agency's inspector general.
Only 13 of the people are still getting Social Security benefits, the report said. But for others, their Social Security numbers are still active, so a number could be used to report wages, open bank accounts, obtain credit cards, or claim fraudulent tax refunds.
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Social Security Data Says 6.5 Million People in US Reached Age 112
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A shapely CATHOLIC SCHOOLGIRL is FIDGETING inside my costume..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Tuesday March 17 2015, @12:41PM
When I went back to the USA to close down my mother's affairs after her death, I dutifully reported her death to all sorts of government agencies: local, county, state and federal.
Many of the offices I contacted, especially the local ones, acted like this was really weird. Just as an example, the voter registration people were obviously not used to the idea of someone being removed from the list of registered voters - it took a real effort on my part to get them to accept the death certificate and remove my mother's name from the rolls. I can only assume that this means lots of those 112-year-olds are still voting regularly; certainly, there is no way to rule it out.
On the other hand, some of the companies I reported her death to were downright predatory: trying to see if they could get some extra money out of bereaved people who maybe weren't up to dealing with an argument. GMAC (now called "Ally Financial" I think) was the worst. She had leased a car; as I understand it, a lease terminates on death as long as you promptly return the leased vehicle. This was very unclear in the lease itself (probably deliberately), but I have two friends in the business who confirmed it. Regardless, GMAC/Ally plagued us for months, claiming that we owed them for all the remaining years on the lease.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.