'Dead' man officially alive

INVERNESS — It’s official: Richard Miller is really alive.

After discovering last month the Social Security Administration had declared him dead as of Nov. 7, 2011, and that the Department of Veterans Affairs had terminated his monthly disability benefits check, Miller, 58, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, panicked.

As he said, he has health problems, but as far as he knew he was still breathing. However, convincing government agencies of that wasn’t easy. At one point, someone from the VA told him since they considered him dead, if he was brought back to life, most likely he would have to reapply for his benefits — start from scratch.

Plus, he was told the VA might require him to pay back the money he received during the months he was officially dead.

Frustrated and worried that he might be homeless if his benefit checks were discontinued or even if it took several months to be reinstated, Miller made countless calls to the VA and a trip to Ocala to the branch office of Social Security.

It took about a week until he was fairly confident that the problem was taken care of, but he wasn’t 100 percent sure until Wednesday afternoon, when he found his check in his mailbox. 

Richard Miller is alive again.

“Not only that, but we got a response from the VA saying the benefits have been resumed and they apologized for the delay,” said Pam Johnson, Miller’s fiancé. “But what about all the others that this happens to? We’re lucky that we got this taken care of.”

Chronicle reporter Nancy Kennedy can be reached at 352-564-2927 or nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.