81–90 of 162 posts
> letters make no mention of a deadline or the fact that their payments will cease if they do not respond within 28 days. A spokesperson said this was “to avoid causing upset” This is the most stereotypically British thing I’ve heard this year
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Japan is Japan [1]. What is your data point for European and American countries? [1] https://hansondoremus.com/2014-4-28-there-are-four-kinds-of-...
You’re asking for the concrete number of people who are dead, but the folks in the system don’t know it? And where there is a financial incentive for recipients to hide this fact? That’s about as (actually) knowable as how many folks in LA are drug dealers. We know some are, clearly, since they’ve been caught. But that is not going to be even close to correct in real terms, because they are of course going to work ve…
> ... asked to confirm that they are not the same deceased stranger every 12 months since the system, administered by Capita, does not log a disproved link. This is a bug in their system. Rather than fixing it, they prefer repeatedly and unashamedly asking old people whether they are dead.
To be fair, there have been several stories (normally "world's oldest person!!!" type) where relatives have been claiming pensions and benefits for sometimes decades after the actual person died. Whether the number of those stories and the amount of money involved is worth the hassle to the people not defrauding governments is left as an exercise to the reader...
The U.S. has a database of social security numbers of the deceased which is quite interesting for a few reasons. It is closely guarded because social security numbers are assigned sequentially by geographic region so if you know someone’s SSN you can get their date of birth or vice versa.
If you manage to get in that database you are really in trouble because every financial institution has a copy of that list and there is no procedure to get you off. It is quite literally a “financial death sentence.”
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be more fair: it is easy to check if they are alive or not. This is not rocket science.
How do you reliably do it at a massive scale? Other than using some kind of biometrics, there's the possibility of impersonation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re asking for the concrete number of people who are dead, but the folks in the system don’t know it? And where there is a financial incentive for recipients to hide this fact? That’s about as (actually) knowable as how many folks in LA are drug dealers. We know some are, clearly, since they’ve been caught. But that is not going to be even close to correct in real terms, because they are of course going to work ve…
The main issue I see is that we are discussing in HN complex subjects like sending spaceships, AI, chip making, and arguing about something that if not fixed is because of bureaucracy first. For example, don't you think that the issue with the woman in the article could be easily solved with the UK resources put in health? I understand that probably you cannot solve 100% of cases but it is aberrant that the issue is…
Frustrating, but I’m sure we’ve all been there in some form as software engineers.
The article is attempting to publicly shame them enough that they fix it, which might work. Most organizations are allergic to bad press.
Every year my grand parents have to take a photo of themselves holding a recent newspaper with date clearly visible to whoever is managing their pension. After the internet and apps plaged the world, now they have to download an app then tilt node and wink to the camera to prove that they are alive. ("If you cannot use a phone, ask your children") I have mixed feeling about this, it's hard to say this is not degenera…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, there have been several stories (normally "world's oldest person!!!" type) where relatives have been claiming pensions and benefits for sometimes decades after the actual person died. Whether the number of those stories and the amount of money involved is worth the hassle to the people not defrauding governments is left as an exercise to the reader...
I think had relatives in Poland in the 1980s who were collecting social security for a dead person. The U.S. has a database of social security numbers of the deceased which is quite interesting for a few reasons. It is closely guarded because social security numbers are assigned sequentially by geographic region so if you know someone’s SSN you can get their date of birth or vice versa. If you manage to get in that d…
SSNs aren’t secure credentials without validation, period.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, there have been several stories (normally "world's oldest person!!!" type) where relatives have been claiming pensions and benefits for sometimes decades after the actual person died. Whether the number of those stories and the amount of money involved is worth the hassle to the people not defrauding governments is left as an exercise to the reader...
I think had relatives in Poland in the 1980s who were collecting social security for a dead person. The U.S. has a database of social security numbers of the deceased which is quite interesting for a few reasons. It is closely guarded because social security numbers are assigned sequentially by geographic region so if you know someone’s SSN you can get their date of birth or vice versa. If you manage to get in that d…
This has been false for decades. (early '90s, I think?)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, there have been several stories (normally "world's oldest person!!!" type) where relatives have been claiming pensions and benefits for sometimes decades after the actual person died. Whether the number of those stories and the amount of money involved is worth the hassle to the people not defrauding governments is left as an exercise to the reader...
I think had relatives in Poland in the 1980s who were collecting social security for a dead person. The U.S. has a database of social security numbers of the deceased which is quite interesting for a few reasons. It is closely guarded because social security numbers are assigned sequentially by geographic region so if you know someone’s SSN you can get their date of birth or vice versa. If you manage to get in that d…
Every year my grand parents have to take a photo of themselves holding a recent newspaper with date clearly visible to whoever is managing their pension. After the internet and apps plaged the world, now they have to download an app then tilt node and wink to the camera to prove that they are alive. ("If you cannot use a phone, ask your children") I have mixed feeling about this, it's hard to say this is not degenera…
Is it so terrible to do a very simple procedure once a year to avoid fraud?