Govt. to Family: 'Dead' Dad Actually Alive, So Pay Up

Donald Miller disappeared in 1980s, was declared dead, returned last year
By Shelley Hazen,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2014 12:30 PM CDT
Govt. to Family: 'Dead' Dad Actually Alive, So Pay Up
   (Shutterstock)

Though very much alive, Donald Miller Jr. is still legally a dead man ... and yet now his daughters are being hit up for $47,000 in Social Security benefits they received as teens because of his death, the AP reports. It all started when Miller, a jobless alcoholic at the time, went missing in the 1980s. The government declared the Ohio man dead in 1994 to initiate the benefit payments for his family, and when Miller returned last year—very much not dead—a judge refused to legally resurrect him. But that hasn't stopped the feds from demanding the return of the benefits, plus interest, the Courier reports. Miller's ex-wife has applied for a waiver. "If anybody has to pay this back, it should be him because we didn't do anything wrong," she says. (More Social Security stories.)

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