Maryland Woman Discovered She’s Accidentally Been Declared Dead While Trying to Renew Her Driver’s License

Mar. 15, 2025

Nicole Paulino.Photo:NBC 10 WJAR/YouTube

Maryland Woman Discovered She’s Accidentally Been Declared Dead While Trying to Renew Her Driver License

NBC 10 WJAR/YouTube

A Maryland woman said she got a shock after learning she’d wrongly been declared dead while trying to renew her driver’s license.

“It then appears that I am deceased,” Paulino — a mother of three from Gaithersburg — told the station, adding, “I got a little frightened, I’m not gonna lie, and surprised, because I am alive. I’m here.”

Social Security cleared up the administration error.Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2013, file photo, the Social Security Administration’s main campus is seen in Woodlawn, Md. More than 60 million retirees, disabled workers, spouses and children rely on monthly Social Security benefits. That’s nearly one in five Americans. The trustees who oversee Social Security say the program has enough money to pay full benefits until 2034. But at that point, Social Security will collect only enough taxes to pay 79 percent of benefits. Unless Congress acts, millions of people on fixed incomes would get an automatic 21 percent cut in benefits

Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

“It’s affected my health, my mental health,” Paulino told the station.

She also noted that because of the mix-up, her health insurance had been canceled, meaning that medical bills were piling up.

“This really, really messes up my life,” said Paulino, who was unable to get the inhaler she needed for her asthma.

“It has affected me a lot,” she said, confirming that she’d also received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) stating she was a “deceased taxpayer.”

A stock photo of U.S. forms of identification.Getty

USA Passport with Social Security Card, Drivers License and Birth Certificate.

Getty

SSA spokesperson Darren Lutz previously told PEOPLE that nearly 3 million deaths are reported to the SSA each year and that their records are “highly accurate.”

The spokesperson sent the statement afterMadeline-Michelle Carthen told PEOPLEin October 2023 that she had “everything stripped” from her after her Social Security number incorrectly listed her as deceased.

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A photo of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building in Washington.J. David Ake/ AP Photo

FILE - This April 13, 2014, file photo shows the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building in Washington.

J. David Ake/ AP Photo

Unknowingly, Carthen’s name was added to the so-called Death Master File, an internal database that collects records of dead people who have Social Security numbers.

“I had to give up my home. I don’t have a place to stay. I can’t get a mortgage,” she told PEOPLE at the time.

“Everything has been stripped from me … I’m blocked,” Carthen, who changed her name in 2021 and received a new Social Security number (but was still facing setbacks), added then.

source: people.com

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