Madeline-Michelle Carthen, a 52-year-old from Missouri, has been living in a nightmare since 2007. She is dead for social security. It all started in 2007: the story in an interview with NBC
“I just know I’m alive. I don’t care what the AI or the software says, I’m alive. It’s just difficult to prove it. That’s how it speaks Madeline Michelle Carthen, a 52-year-old from Missouri who has been living a nightmare since 2007. She’s dead to Social Security. It all started in 2007 when Carthen, then a student and mother of a teenager, was accepted as a participant in an exchange program at Webster University in Ghana. For this project the woman he had applied for financial support from his advisor And here’s the discovery: According to her Social Security number, she was dead.
No alarms, says CarthenNBCor rather a laugh: she was convinced that everything would soon be sorted out, also because as soon as she contacted the Social Security Administration, She was told she had been put on the death list “accidentally.”. What happened in these sixteen years? Carthen attempted to have his name removed from the deceased’s file, submitted dozens of documents to the SSA (which he later sued), and wrote to four U.S. presidents and several government officials. Result? No one. And his situation has worsened from year to year: he has not been able to apply for a mortgage, he has not found a permanent job, because at a certain point there are always problems with human resources that cannot be solved because of his social security number: “If I succeed To find a job, I know there will be problems. So I know I’ll get it, but it’s taken away from me and I have to start over. In 2021, after years, Carthen believed he had made it: The SSA issued her a new Social Security number and she changed her name to Madeline Coburn to deal with the past. But little has changed: the number is linked to the previous one and it continues to have the same problems as always: “I don’t know how it will end. I keep pushing and fighting, and when I say fighting, I mean it in spirit. Sometimes I want to give up but my faith is too strong. I don’t care if it takes another twenty years, I’ll still do what I have to do to resolve this situationnot only for myself, but also for others.