Help Me Hank: Help Me Hank! Social Security

Let's pick a word to describe Ruth Hebsch. We might choose gardener, wife or mom. We might choose beach-goer or power-walker.

Ruth Hebsch
"A couple of miles walk every day."

A word you would not choose to describe Ruth Hebsch, how to put this delicately, is dead.

Ruth Hebsch
"Are you kidding me? Loud and clear, I’m here."

But "dead" is what the Social Security Administration called her. The first bad sign, her monthly check did not arrive in the mail.

Ruth Hebsch
"That’s what we get. That’s what we live on."

Then bad sign number two, a letter from Medicare referred to "the estate of Ruth Hebsch."

Ruth Hebsch
"And I thought, that’s strange."

The letter refused payment for a lab test, saying that Ruth’s date of death was before the date of service. Date of death? Like she said:

Ruth Hebsch
"Loud and clear, I’m here."

So plan A: she called her daughter.

Bonnie Hebsch
"I didn’t think it was funny. I just wanted it to be fixed."

So plan B: they called Social Security.

Ruth Hebsch
"They didn’t seem to know down at the Social Security office how it could happen."

Then, time for plan C.

Bonnie Hebsch
"I sent an email to Help Me Hank."

Well first of all, we decided it was clear Ruth was still with us. Our next move was to find out why Social Security didn’t think so.

We emailed Uncle Sam, actually the Social Security office, and they came up with some interesting information.

First, they have 48-million Social Security recipients, each with a separate number.

And second, apparently someone somewhere died and someone else, somewhere else entered Ruth’s number instead of theirs, which made Ruth dead -- on paper. But not for long.

Soon after, Ruth got a call that all was back to normal. All the money she was owed was deposited into her account and her medical bills were covered.

Ruth Hebsch
"I’m happy that it’s all settled."

And, are you listening Uncle Sam, one more time:

Ruth Hebsch
"Loud and clear, I’m here."

Social Security Hotline: 1-800-772-1213

Social Security Administration

(Copyright © 2005 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)