We started today’s programme with a story about a woman living in Maryland in the US who when attempting to re-new her driving licence, was mightily surprised when told this couldn’t be done since the records showed that she was dead!
Adding insult to injury she then received a letter from the inland revenue describing her as a deceased taxpayer.
Wonder how it was addressed – “dear departed”!
And that was just the start of her problems with the health insurance she’d taken out on her mother and three children being promptly cancelled, resulting in a stream of medical bills and preventing her from getting the inhaler needed for her asthma.
Presumably since she was dead it was reasoned that she no longer needed the inhaler!
Social Security officials later admitted that the problem was a all down to a “typo”.
Apparently a funeral home trying to report a death had got a digit wrong in the Social Security number.
The Social Security Administration later claimed credit for the accuracy of their records.
I suppose it depends on how you look at things but even a margin of error of less than 0.33% may sound good, but based on over 3 million deaths occurring annually, suggests that about 10,000 of them will likely be wrong.
A spokesperson subsequently admitted that errors occurred on an almost daily basis.
Imagine the impact of that on your credit report!
Moving back across the Atlantic you may remember that last week we reported on the uproar that had been caused in Wales over the potential re-naming of a village!
Well now it seems that the residents of a road in Pontfadog in Wrexham, fed up with the lack of action being taken to repair potholes, have decided to turn the road into a tourist attraction.
Signs have been erected to draw attention to the “deepest, longest, widest potholes in Wales”.
“Two kilometres of award winning potholes with very little actual road to spoil your fun,” the caption on the sign reads.
Local farmer Donald Roberts, 76, said that many of the potholes were “impassable” and that the condition of the road made life working the farm nigh impossible. He added that the holes were so deep that he was afraid of bursting the tyres on his tractor.
Another resident said that due to lack of attention, the potholes keep getting bigger and deeper. especially after any bad weather.
Following the appearance of the signs, it now seems that the council are finally taking some interest in the issue since repair work has now started.
However as yet only a few of the holes have been fixed – but I guess you have to start somewhere.
I very much hope to have your company again tomorrow,
Scott
