Social Security acknowledged the error and corrected it. Years later, Lisa Mercer is still fighting to prove she’s alive. She came to Ask Anthony for help. <\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 When your spouse dies, the last thing you expect is to be told you died too.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what Jacksonville widow Lisa Mercer says happened after she notified the Social Security Administration about her husband\u2019s death. Years later, she says she\u2019s still fighting to prove she\u2019s alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was married to my husband for over 40 years, and losing him was hard enough,\u201d Mercer said.<\/p>\n
Her husband died unexpectedly in September 2020. Mercer says she followed the rules, contacting Social Security right away to stop his benefits and avoid overpayments.<\/p>\n
But somewhere in that process, something went wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was still grieving \u2026 and then in the midst of it all, I find out that I\u2019m dead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In a letter, Social Security acknowledged the error, stating both Mercer and her husband had been listed as deceased. While the agency corrected its records, Mercer says the damage didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
During a traffic stop, she says a police officer ran her license and got a shocking result.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gets in his car \u2026opens his laptop…and it\u2019s flashing deceased,\u201d Mercer said.<\/p>\n
Six years later, Mercer says the issue is still haunting her \u2014 this time with the Internal Revenue Service. She says she has been unable to file her taxes because the IRS still lists her as dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a widow was hard enough, but then having this happen on top of it \u2026 it was just icing on the cake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n