By Brian Owens, The Courier

Rumours of Cathy Adams’ death have been greatly exaggerated.

The Charlotte County woman only discovered that the government believed she was dead at the end of January, when her Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments failed to materialize in her bank account.

A call to Service Canada revealed that she had been declared dead on December 13, when the agency apparently received a death notice from a family member.

“The lady was really nice, it took a while but she came back and said, ‘Sorry, I have bad news, we got a death notice for you. My condolences’,” Adams told The Courier. “We were both laughing but at the same time we understood the implications.”

Maja Stefanovska, a spokeswoman for Employment and Social Development Canada said Adams’ premature administrative death was the result of a clerical error.

“The error occurred when Service Canada staff worked on a claim for a different client involving the report of that client’s death, made by the niece of that client,” she said. This information was inadvertently inputted into Ms. Adams’ file, resulting in the temporary cancellation of her benefits.”

Stefanovska said Adams’ account and personal information was not compromised, but Adams is not so sure.

The reason her file was open on December 13 was because someone had called to cancel an application for a Guaranteed Income Supplement that had been made online, but Adams said she neither initiated nor cancelled that application. She was also recently notified of a disability claim that she did not make.

This has left her concerned that her Social Insurance Number may have been compromised, or that someone is attempting to steal her identity.

“I still want to know for sure that it hasn’t been compromised,” she said. “There’s too many odd things happening at the same time.”

Most of the issues have now been sorted out, and Adams’ CPP and OAS payments have been reinstated, and her SIN was reactivated today, though her online account with Service Canada is still locked.

Her bureaucratic resurrection has been a serious ordeal, requiring multiple phone calls as well as visits to the Service Canada office in St. Stephen to provide paperwork proving her identity.

Adams is frustrated that so much of the onus of fixing the issue has fallen on her shoulders.

“I’m running around trying to fix their mistake,” she said. “They should have a protocol in place so the people affected don’t have to do so much work.”

But Adams said the staff at Service Canada have been “stellar” in helping her solve the problem. Local member of parliament John Williamson has also been a big help, she said, in quickly getting the ball rolling on fixing the problem.

Stefanovska said that while Employment and Social Development Canada does not keep statistics on these types of cases, it is “exceptionally rare” for someone to be incorrectly declared deceased and to have payments stopped in error.

Adams, however, has discovered several similar cases with a little online sleuthing, and Williamson said that this is not even the first time he has had to help bring a constituent back from the dead.

“It’s not a usual occurrence, but it’s not the first time we’ve had to help out with something like this,” he said.

Brent Bilsky of St. Stephen said the same thing happened to his father, who lives in British Columbia, just last year. It took nearly six months to get the issue resolved.

Bilsky contrasted the apparent ease of staff accidentally marking someone dead with the hoops he has had to jump through while genuinely trying to close estates for other family members.

“The government sometimes keeps making payments for months after they’ve been notified of a death,” he said.

Despite the inconvenience, Adams can see the amusing side of her situation. She may even have a party to celebrate her “rebirth” once the problem is finally resolved.

“It’s funny even though it’s been a pain in the ass,” she said. “Luckily I have a wicked sense of humour.”