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This article is amusing because some countries don't have a good way of notifying institutions about deaths (like the SS death master file)...and there are lots
by mannyv 4y ago
This article is amusing because some countries don't have a good way of notifying institutions about deaths (like the SS death master file)...and there are lots of issues associated with dying (taxes, inheritance, loss of benefits, etc).
In those countries they just don't report the death, sometimes for decades. I used to joke that the government should have a celebration of centenarians and see how many of them actually show up.
- PaulHoule 4y agoI used to kid that I couldn't get a security clearance because I had relatives in Eastern Europe collecting social security for dead people.
- civilized 4y agoThe SS death master file has been broken for a decade now. Institutions that need death information have to work with private vendors that aggregate data from a variety of sources.
- mannyv 4y agoYeah, once states were able to opt-out (due to medical/privacy issues) it basically stopped being a canonical reference. But it's still pretty good for the most part.
- meetingthrower 4y agoAh yes, anybody remember the lovely insurance companies who had PERFECT data for stopping annuity payments, but somehow couldn't find the records to pay life insurance claims?
- cperciva 4y agoI used to joke that the government should have a celebration of centenarians and see how many of them actually show up. IIRC a version of this happened a while back in Japan; the mayor of a town decided to visit some of the oldest residents, only to find that none of them were still alive.
- Animats 4y agoThat turned into a sizable pension fraud scandal in Japan.[1][2] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15japan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15japan.html [2] https://www.economist.com/banyan/2010/08/06/the-case-of-the-missing-methuselahs https://www.economist.com/banyan/2010/08/06/the-case-of-the-...