Susan Johnson was told by hospital staff she had died four months earlier as she waited for a scan.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/20347898

Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/1pl5L

Mrs Johnson, from Scarborough, attended her hospital appointment in March 2023.

The mother-of-two said: "I gave them my letter and their first words were, ‘ooh you’re dead’.

"I said, ‘pardon?’. I was in shock.

…

The retired housekeeper contacted her GP and was told the mistake had been fixed.

However, when she contacted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) the bemused call handler told her: “On the computer you’re dead”.

"I said, ‘I’m not, I’m still talking to you’.

  • TWeaKEnglish
    31·
    2 months ago

    They are, that’s why they freeze things first and only proceed when they get a copy of the death certificate. Someone has to give them the death certificate, which is why nothing happened here for 4 months.

    For bank accounts, this means you can’t withdraw their money until it’s gone through probate. However, if it’s a joint account then the surviving account holder can still use the account as normal. However if no one’s pushing for probate (and without death certificates) nothing much will happen for a while.

    This is why it’s a bit of a non-story, nothing major happened ultimately, nothing was likely to happen soon (her carer’s payments stopped temporarily but it sounds like she didn’t realise until after the hospital appointment), and if anything the most surprising thing is that it took the “dead” person 4 months to even notice the mistake.