Widow on Paper Path to Benefits
Question: I am having trouble getting a copy of a death certificate for my husband so that I can begin collecting Social Security.
My husband disappeared after an apparent boating accident on Lake Shasta in June, 1963. No body was ever recovered.
I went to Superior Court in Los Angeles in April, 1973, and had him declared legally dead. My attorney at the time is now deceased, but I have a copy of the court papers. In June or July of this year I wrote to the registrar-recorder at the Los Angeles County Hall of Records, and the office could find no death certificate for my husband and said cases like mine would be on file at the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Sacramento. Sacramento says it has no death certificate on my husband.
I have submitted the court papers, all sorts of papers from the sheriff’s office in Shasta County, attorneys’ letters and each and every thing the Social Security office has asked for--so far, to no avail.
I did not work long enough to draw a pension on my own earnings. I either had a death certificate or sufficient proof of some kind in 1973 for the Veterans Administration, because I qualified for a widow’s pension, which is my only income at the present. I have been trying to get my Social Security pension started almost since I turned 65 in April. Please give me some advice--where do I start next?--L.G.
Answer: You’ve done just about everything humanly possible--and certainly everything that the Social Security guidelines require--to get this straightened out. Because it is out of the norm, however, it may be taking a bit more time than usual, although Diane Del Haro, a public information specialist with Social Security, who made a quick check with the agency’s Palm Springs office, which is handling the case, suggests that its first correspondence from you on this matter turned up sometime in July, rather than April. But, even so, Del Haro said, it certainly should have been resolved by now. Something, apparently fell through a crack.
Hang on, the agency sees no problem in your getting your checks, and they’ll be retroactive to when you applied. Even if--for some reason--the correspondence and the court records that you supplied Social Security hadn’t been adequate to support your claim (although, Del Haro said, from all appearances, they certainly should have been), the absolute clincher is in the Veterans Administration’s acceptance of your husband’s death. If it’s good enough for the Veterans Administration, it’s good enough for the Social Security Administration.
Actually, you could have started your legwork on this claim at age 60 when widows become eligible (or at age 50 if they are also disabled).
Mysterious disappearance with a presumption of death is always sticky--and prolonged--whether the issue at hand is Social Security benefits, life insurance or simply trying to settle the estate of the deceased.
Here is Social Security’s policy on the subject, as outlined, in the 1986 edition of the “Social Security Handbook”: “A person will be presumed dead if he or she has been unexplainedly absent from home and has not been heard of for seven years or more and circumstances would indicate that the person would have been likely to communicate with family or friends if he or she had been alive.”
So, for seven years, there’s nothing that Social Security can do about a widow’s claim. During those years the “death of the missing person must be clearly proved.”
How? “The claimant must submit all available evidence, including statements of persons having knowledge of the situation, letters or notes left by the missing person that have a bearing on the case, the results of insurance or police investigations, and the complete facts surrounding the person’s disappearance.” Which, of course, is just what you did.
As grim or as cold as it may sound, then, the heir of anyone who mysteriously disappears and is presumed dead should begin collecting this sort of supporting evidence as soon as possible. Waiting to get your act together until that obligatory seven years has rolled by can produce a cold trail.
You’re going to be all right, and, by the time you read this, Social Security assures me that you will have been contacted with a progress report.
Q: I was interested in your recent column about F. J. and his problem with an error on his credit report. The point was made that when such an error is spotted, the consumer should notify all three credit-reporting companies and send them a copy of the letter from the credit grantor to make sure that all of them attach it as a part of his credit report. But how do we contact them, and how much does it cost to get your personal credit report?--B.J.
A: Here are the addresses for the three nationwide firms operating in Southern California:
TRW Information Services: P.O. Box 5450, Orange 92613-5450.
Trans Union Credit Information: 1400 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton 92635.
Credit Bureau Inc., 2223 Wellington Ave., No. 301, Santa Ana 92701.
All of them charge the same: $8. (There’s a state ceiling on it.) If, however, you have been denied credit within the last 30 days, then the credit reporting company, on the basis of whose report the denial was made, must furnish the report to you without charge.
