'I was legally dead for 4 years and unable to vote, drive or claim tax returns'

04 October 2023 , 15:50

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Jeff Athey has told how he was declared dead for four years (Image: Jeff Athey / SWNS)

A man has told how he was declared legally dead by authorities which left him unable to drive, vote or claim tax returns for four years.

Jeff Athey, 28, from New York was stated as passed away by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2017. He had to fight to get "legally resurrected" and from 2017 to 2021, he couldn't even renew his driving licence.

At the same time his voter registration was removed, leaving him unable to cast his vote in the 2018 midterm elections. And whilst able to pay taxes, he couldn't claim tax returns.

Jeff first realised he had been declared dead when his tax return was denied in March 2019. He immediately went to a local SSA office and was met with an employee who had no idea how to carry out his request.

He was unable to vote, drive or claim tax returns (Jeff Athey / SWNS)

He first realised there was a problem when his tax return was denied in 2019 (Jeff Athey / SWNS)

Jeff said: "They weren't upset because they had to do it. I think it bothered them because they had no idea how." The SSA asked him for documentation to prove he was alive - which he provided - and corrected their records in April of the same year.

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Unfortunately, this did not correct the records of any other organisations including the voter registration office or the IRS. Jeff said: "They send a notification to everyone else when you die but they don't when you're resurrected. When I tried contacting the IRS it was impossible. I would get lost in a phone maze and then they wouldn't talk to me because I appeared dead. I was paying taxes the whole time but I couldn't get any money back."

A letter he received from the Social Security Administration (Jeff Athey / SWNS)

He said the ordeal has left him more wary of government agencies (Jeff Athey / SWNS)

Jeff was forced to contact the voter registration office to register again which allowed him to vote in the 2020 presidential elections. But he remained dead in the eyes of the IRS until 2021 when he reached out to a congresswoman Yvette Clark who intervened and Jeff was finally "resurrected".

He was then able to claim his tax return, which amounted £2,480 ($3,000) over four years. The ordeal has had a deep effect on Jeff, who lost faith in the organisations running his country. Jeff said: "I was just a 20-something, I didn't have an answer to what was happening and every answer that people proposed seemed too expensive and too scary.

"It makes me more anxious and frustrated to deal with any government agency. The issue for everything was that no-one in the system was talking to anyone else, it was always up to me to find out and inform everyone."

Tim Hanlon