DENVER -- Aurora, Colorado, resident Alex Vukovich is officially back from the dead, after months of trying to fix a mistake that held up his monthly Social Security checks.

Vukovich first found out the federal government had him listed as dead when his January payment disappeared from his bank account. He notified the Social Security Administration of the mistake, and the problem appeared resolved, but his checks didn’t come through in February or March.

He said he later learned the Department of Government Efficiency had pulled the names of people who had mistakenly been put on the deceased list who were later declared alive, and moved them back onto the deceased list.

“My name appeared as if I had died again,” Vukovich said.

When nothing he did to fix the problem proved successful, Vukovich reached out to the office of U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat who represents Aurora. A staff member worked with the local Social Security office, and when that failed, found someone higher up in the agency who could finally get Vukovich off the death list in May.

His checks have arrived on time since then.

The staff member did an “outstanding” job, but “it’s sad that it was her instead of Social Security that got it fixed,” Vukovich said.

The Social Security Administration estimated that fewer than 1% of the roughly 3.1 million death reports it receives annually need corrections. Typically, states report deaths, but some reports come from family members, funeral homes or other agencies.

The agency distributes about $1.3 trillion each year to 59 million retirees who paid into the system.

Vukovich said a person answering the phone for the agency told him the problem most likely resulted from someone entering the wrong Social Security number for a deceased beneficiary.

A Montana woman who read a previous article about Vukovich’s situation told him about a man also named Alexander Vukovich who had recently died, but he doesn’t know if someone could have mixed them up.

Vukovich advised anyone who gets a letter from Social Security that doesn’t make sense to schedule an appointment with their local office, and to bring someone to help keep track of everything the staff says. Even so, fixing mistakes is a challenge when different parts of the agency aren’t on the same page, he said.

“I just dreaded going to the mailbox to see if I’d get another letter,” he said.