Margaret Swoboda celebrated her 100th birthday in April. Fearful of contracting COVID, she decided against the big party her family had planned and chose to mark the milestone with a few of them at a nearby restaurant.

But a couple months later, unbeknownst to her, the federal government sent its own form of centenary greeting to her Northeast Portland home: a foreboding letter demanding she prove she was still among the living.

Absent that, the $2,400 a month she receives in federal pension benefits would be cut off.

The June 2 letter from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management requested a response within 30 days, including a notarized copy of an attached form, a copy of her state ID, and a picture of her holding a recent newspaper with the date showing.

Swoboda is legally blind, s

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