Waiting for your stimulus check to arrive in the mail is a little like watching paint dry: Slow, painful and seemingly never-ending.

But once it finally comes, most people are thrilled, and use the bonus cash to pay their insurance premiums, buy groceries, put gas in their car or cover other bills they’ve been neglecting due to a lack of resources.

But something strange is going on with the Feds. If you haven’t received a stimulus payment made out to your dead Aunt Margie or your beloved mother who passed three decades ago (but whom you still miss like it was yesterday), count yourself lucky.

A glitch at the Social Security Administration is sending payouts to the great beyond—and leaving families dumbfounded.

That’s right: Our government is sending checks to dead people!

Just ask Antoniette Santopadre. She received a stimulus check made out to her father, Romolo Romonini, an Italian-American who lived in the U.S. for a short time and passed away out-of-country decades ago.

Ms. Santopadre doesn’t understand why the check was issued in her dead father’s name—and the explanations provided by the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service don’t ring true, she says.

Like Antoniette, James Hagner received a check in the name of his mother, Rose, who also passed away many years ago.

Similarly, Richard Hicks, who was the personal representative for a good friend, recently received a stimulus check in his friend’s name following the man’s passing.

So what’s going on? Why is the government issuing stimulus checks to dead people when we’ve got an $11 trillion budget deficit (and counting)?

Social Security says it wasn’t at fault because all stimulus checks had to be cut by June—and the ‘deadly’ payouts were simply oversight that occurred during the rush to get them out.

The IRS says it had no way of knowing those people had died, so it can’t be held responsible either.

So who is responsible? And why are they sending checks to dead people?

While you’re waiting for your stimulus check to arrive (hopefully in your own name!), pass the time by reading our article, “Stimulus Checks Issued to the Living—and Dead.” Then weigh in: Was this snafu unforgiveable—or mere oversight?