It took almost seven weeks to realize that Kathy Adams was dead.
When the Charlotte County woman checked her bank account on January 29, her aging security and CPP offers were not deposited. So he called Canada, and the government worker was suspended when he checked his trophy.
“When she returned, ‘Sorry, this is a bad news … on December 13, we received a death announcement for you. My condolences.”
Adams said they both laughed at the absurdity of the exchange.
“I said, ‘What am I? Am I dead?’”
Adams was in such distrust, she got off the phone and she came back and talked to someone else.
“They said they were not. I was dead. My benefits were not canceled. Instead it stopped. This is difficult to bring back.”
Within the first few days, Adams made nearly two dozen phone calls – lasted for more than an hour – and three trips to the Canada office in St. Stephen.
Kathy Adams Service called Canada after noticing that his elderly security and CPP concessions were not deposited, and the agency was reportedly receiving his death announcement in December.
“I usually laugh. Please tell me that I would like to live again.
Depending on whom she talked to, she got two different answers. One is the result of a clerk’s error, and the other claims to be his daughter -in -law. Adams said he did not recognize the name given by the caller.
Employment and Social Development Canada refused to provide an interview, but in an email report, “Human Error” is blamed.
“Service Canada has taken the right steps to solve this problem and has confirmed that the benefits have been restored.
Further details were asked by the department. Another officer responded on Tuesday afternoon, saying, “The transaction that misrepresented Mrs. Adams’s file originated from a separate demand that she made.”
However, Adams said, “There is no request.”
Withdrawal of her life
Meanwhile, Adams said the withdrawal of his life was more complicated than he expected.
While her aging security has already been deposited in her account, he will not get her CPP until February 18, and she has not yet accessed her service Canada account.
But she has been told that the real headache will be her social insurance number.
On Tuesday, he was asked to issue his wedding certificate, “But I have split for 30 years, so I have it.
“However, I had my separation agreement … The woman here said, ‘I think it will work’ – 100 percent not sure, but she thought it would work.”
Although her immediate goal is to restore her benefits, her long -term concern is that her identity has been compromised.
“If you can’t give me an explanation and say exactly what happened, do I think my identity has been compromised?”
If it is, “What should I change? I don’t want to change things approximately without knowing exactly what happened.”
The cause of death is not unique
Adams lost more confidence in Canada, and after a little more online, he saw many similar events in recent years.
“I have seen that this happened to a large number of people, especially the elders,” he said.
“One or two should be flagged for not being careful or some scams. But of course you can’t have many clerk bugs.”
The department does not monitor how often the people have died, but “it is rare to declare that a person is wrongly reported to be wrong and to stop pension payments.”
Generally, the service Canada requires a “beneficiary’s death date”, a person responsible for the affairs of the deceased, the full name, date of birth, date of death, the date of death, social insurance number (if known), the previous address, and the garden name and address.
‘I missed my uprising, no flowers weren’t available’
Adams is wondering why she had to work very hard to fix someone else’s mistake.
“It is difficult to believe that the new (social insurance) number should be provided to try to correct the mistake they have made.”
But on the way, she too was a little fun with the situation.
“You have to illuminate things. … You can’t get angry about it. You have to deal with it, but you have to have a more humorous feeling because it is laughable.”
She was just a little fun to tell people, “I’m dead and I’m coming back to life.”
He also joks about choosing another birthday for her next life – or even a new year, much more later than her original.
“Do you know what I really wanted? I wanted to know if they had a death certificate. I wanted a copy because I wanted to design it and put it on.”
After all, “I missed my uprising. No flowers were available.”
