‘I was legally dead for four years and unable to claim Social Security or $3k tax return!'

One man is telling how he was declared dead by Social Security and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials which left him unable to claim thousands of dollars worth of tax returns.

Jeff Atey, 28, is a writer and actor from New York City who was considered to have passed away by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) and the country’s Federal tax body.

This error led to unintended consequences which had a detrimental impact on the creative’s life and resulted in a years-long fight to be “legally resurrected”.

Examples of how he was affected include being unable to renew his driver's license from 2017 to 2021, which meant he could not drive, and being removed from the voting register; an error that resulted in him being unable to vote in the 2018 midterm elections.

However, Mr Atley was also unable to claim crucial tax returns despite the fact he was continuing to pay taxes.

The producer did not realize that he had been declared dead by the SSA and IRS until March 2019.

Upon this discovery, Mr Atley reached out to his local Social Security office to find out how this issue could be remedied.

Despite taking initiative, the employee he met with had no idea how to carry out his request to be declared un-dead.

The SSA told him to give documentation to prove he was still alive. Once Mr Atley did this, the organization corrected its records in April 2019.

Frustratingly, the Social Security Administration did not correct the records for other organizations, including the IRS and voter registration office.

He explained: “They weren't upset because they had to do it. I think it bothered them because they had no idea how."

“They send a notification to everyone else when you die but they don't when you're resurrected.

"When I tried contacting the IRS it was impossible. I would get lost in a phone maze and then they wouldn't talk to me because I appeared dead.

"I was paying taxes the whole time but I couldn't get any money back."

To sort out the situation, Mr. Atley reached out to the voter registration office to re-register in order to vote for the 2020 presidential election.

In terms of the IRS, the actor was considered dead until 2021 when he contacted his congresswoman Yvette Clark who intervened on his behalf.

Finally, Mr Ately was able to claim his tax return which came to around $3,000 over the space of four years. Despite now being considered alive, the writer has lost faith in the various organizations many Americans trust.

He added: "I was just a 20-something, I didn't have an answer to what was happening and every answer that people proposed seemed too expensive and too scary. It makes me more anxious and frustrated to deal with any government agency.

"The issue for everything was that no one in the system was talking to anyone else, it was always up to me to find out and inform everyone."

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