She stopped getting her benefits, then Service Canada told her she was reported dead

A New Brunswick woman fights to resurrect her Service Canada account after the government declared her dead. Sarah Plowman reports.

Cathy Adams had no clue she’d been deemed dead.

In fact, the Pomeroy Ridge, N.B. resident felt just fine, despite being declared dead in Service Canada’s records on Dec. 13.

“It certainly gave me a lot of laughs and a lot of dead jokes,” said Adams.

She first noticed a problem at the end of January when she hadn’t received her Old Age Security or Canada pension payments. Her Service Canada account also appeared to be temporarily locked. She called Service Canada to figure out why.

What the agent said shocked her.

“She said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s bad news. But on Dec. 13, it was noted you were deceased.’ And then, she was very sweet. She said, ‘my condolences,’” Adams recalled.

“Both of us laughed because I mean that was really funny. Who would’ve thought that would be the response?”

Adams said the agent put in an urgent request to have it corrected.

Adams found past news articles online about other Canadians who were mistakenly declared dead and felt the need to be proactive.

She made between 18 to 20 calls. She reached out to Service Canada again, contacted her Member of Parliament and went to the local Service Canada office in St. Stephen to prove she is alive.

Adams said that’s where she was first told what might have happened.

“She told me that a niece had called in and reported a death. She asked if I knew this person and I said no I didn’t,” said Adams.

“And she said that’s obviously been put on the wrong account.”

When CTV News was interviewing Adams Wednesday afternoon, a Service Canada director called to apologize, explain the error, and assure her it’s being resolved.

The person on the phone noted a human error did occur when Service Canada was contacted by the niece of someone who had died and it was incorrectly added to Adams’ account. They apologized and noted the inconvenience I has caused.

Employment and Social Development Canada denied CTV News’ request for an interview but sent along a statement.

A spokesperson said their records show Adams reached out to them on Dec. 17 to cancel a GIS claim she had made. Then an error occurred when staff worked on a claim for a different client involving the report of that client’s death, made by their niece.

“This information was inadvertently inputted into Ms. Adams' file, resulting in the temporary cancellation of her benefits,” the spokesperson said.

That doesn’t make sense to Adams, who said she never contacted them about a GIS claim. She plans to follow up.

Adams’ social insurance number is now reactivated, and she is back receiving Old Age Security and CPP benefits. As of Thursday afternoon, she still had to call to unlock her My Service Canada account.

Adams stresses everyone she spoke with has been very helpful. Despite all of the jokes, Adams thinks this never should’ve happened.

“They need to be really careful about what they’re entering on files or have some protocols that can be corrected very, very quickly, without the person – like myself – having to do all the running around,” Adams said.

“If this ever happens to you, be proactive. Don’t sit back and accept an urgent request is going to take care of it.”