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It says right on the website "In this example, you will receive your September benefit in October." If the person dies in October why should you pay back the money that was meant for September when they were alive and paid their rent, food and other expenses? The SS is getting over on people and it is not right. I feel there should be a CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT against SS. What is good for one person should be good for the other. Not who they feel like collecting from.
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Mother's SS check was direct deposited into our joint checking acct on third Wed. of each month. Mother died on 4/14/16. Her March SS check was direct deposited into our joint checking acct on 4/20/16. Legally she (or I) should be able to keep it as last check. Yet it was snatched out by SSA on 5/10/16. Now SSA wants me to submit form SSA-1724 to TRY to get it reinstated maybe months from now. How can they get away with this? Do I have any recourse? Any free consumer or legal agency to turn to for assistance? Please advise?
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lrobe1933 No, unfortunately she will not get a March check. If she does, the SS department will either redact it from her account, or will contact you to return it.
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my wife received last check from SS on feb 24 and died march 3rd. should she receive a check in March?
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Lillian. You are so right. This government doesn't care a bit for seniors. It treats us a burden and gives more to people who are young and healthy and CAN work.
They use an antiquated formula to determine the cost of living increase (which for the past 4 years hasn't even begun to cover the increase in medicare and Advantagecare premiums, let alone the 20+% increase in food or co-pays) They base it mostly on the price of oil (and seniors drive less, consume less durable goods products) I bet they don't even factor in the increase in medical costs as part of COLA.
Anyone notice that they now call social security an "entitlement" (like welfare) It is our money (and our employers contribution) not taxpayer money. After the govt spent OUR money, OUR retirement that we were mandated to pay into - the govt spent it instead of investing it for us. We should be receiving twice the amount we are receiving if only the money for the past 50 years had been invested and compounded. And you are right - why shouldn't they prorate the last month of life. Why do they have the right to take back all of my mother's March payment when she 30 out of 31 days in March?
It really frightens me the way seniors have been kicked to the side by the government. I wonder if there will be any help for us in 10 years, will they ration our health care like they do in GB?
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Here's my answer to your comment. It seems government has all the "rights" and the rest of us do not. Especially the elderly who are on fixed income and rely on their "hefty" ss income; which btw they worked all their lives and paid into it!
You may not have caught the fact that my fathers check that he was very much do entitled to receive never made it to his direct deposit, the state/social security stopped it in transit! So we never even saw it! But I knew he should have received it so I started my calls on behalf of my mom. And so the story goes that I already stated before. A year and a half later she finally received it after hundreds of calls which I kept a logg of with dates, times and names and what they said they were going to do and suggested I do etc... Plus which "call center" I was talking to. Since like I stated before you get random call centers answering and they are in different states.
I think the difference between your situation and ours is probably where you live to where we live. Illinois is hard up for money, So trust me if the state your in has anything to do with the dispursment of funds, that would answer why my dads was retracted so quickly. In your state they may not be in such financial bad shape so they are in no hurry. Either way it stinks!
Plus in your case, actually in all cases the survivor should get every penny up to the date of death for his or her spouse, ss should prorate if need be. Now that would be fair. Who am I kidding when is government ever fair or fully honest for that matter. In these cases who suffer the elderly survivors.
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Yes, they have the right. What is so unfair is that the payment made on the month of death is also redacted. My mom died on March 30, and they are taking that money back, which doesn't seem right since I had to pay the NH for every day she was there. I'm surprised they tried to pull the money out of yours so quickly. Here it is May 1, and I am STILL waiting for them to pull out both the March and April payments. SS is holding up my settling her estate.
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Our family went through this when my dad passed away on 11/7. SS failed to send him a check in Nov. so I called and was told that YES he was entitle to receive the check since the checks you get are always for the previous month, and as long as the deceased person was alive the entire previous month of his or her passing, they are entitle to get that final check. What transpired in my fathers case is that the check had been approved to be issued and then it was stopped for some unknown reason. It took us over a year of relentless phone calls every 2 weeks since that was the time frame they (meaning social security) would tell us for us to follow up. Initially we had to wait 60 to 90 days then it was every 2 weeks and you would call get a different person in a different state call center to talk to and they would supposedly send an email to their "payment center" on our behalf inquiring on where payment was and when to expect etc.. This was a nightmare we also decided to go in person the local social security office which we had to end up doing twice and then finally a year and a half later my mom finally received the check my dad was entitle to that November since it was for the month of October in which he was alive the entire month.
In conclusion yes, you are entitle to that final pay out but it's a long hard road dealing with this institution known as Social Security! Best of luck!
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The check is for the previous month. If a person dies late enough in the month that the check for that month cannot be stopped in time and it gets deposited, it must be returned. If a person dies on or near the first of the month, SSA may take the money back without warning, but the money should not really be taken back because it belongs to the deceased and should be included in the deceased's assets. There is a form that needs to be filled out and sent in to get the money back. (Call SSA about that.) My mom died 8/3/15, and SSA took her money back without warning. Fortunately, my brother noticed in time to prevent the check to the funeral home from bouncing. He had to rush to the bank to deposit cash into her account. (His name was on the account, too, or her account would not have been active after her death.) Sometime around mid-December, each of Mom's kids (9 of us living) received an equal portion of her last Social Security check. Now we've received Form SSA-1099 because I guess they want to tax us on that as our income, although it should be treated as inherited money since it belonged to Mom at the time of her death, not to SSA. What a mess!
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I am in the process of dealing with this issue for my deceased mothers account. I have researched it, both online (the Treasury Departments "Green Book" is an excellent sources of info), and face to face, with the SSA and the bank. Here is what I have found, and verified, to be fact.
1. As long as the recipient lives past 12:00:01 am on the 1st day of the month the following deposit (usually the 3rd) is valid.
2. Even so, most FIs will return it to the Treasury Dept. (Note: The money does NOT go to the SSA but to Treasury who disburses the funds), this is to protect themselves from being held liable for it (yes if an FI allows an SSA deposit to be removed by anyone but the Treasury AND it is deemed that it was not due the recipient THE FI is held liable by the Treasury, the FI then has to try and collect from the estate of family).
3. FIs differ in when the return the deposit. Some do it upon getting a death certificate, some wait until the Treasury issues a "draw" (SSA does not make the draw, only the Treasury can do so).
In my mothers case the bank is holding the funds pending a draw, once the funds are returned her account will show as "underpaid" at this time I will have to file form ssa-1724 to request the funds. SSA will determine my eligibility (valid and due me as I paid for the balance of her funeral and her estate was closed as insolvent), and then request that the Treasury send me the funds. What fun eh?
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There are two sources of clawbacks. SS can do it and the bank can do it. Sometimes one or the other makes mistakes when they receive the death certificate. The family is entitled to keep the check that was received the month someone dies. If one is received the month after someone dies, it will be taken back, so should be left in the account to prevent a negative balance.

If the SS check received the month of death is taken back, the best thing to do is contact SS to work out what is likely a mistake made by SS or the bank.
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David - your wife will get a surviving spouse check. SSA is actually pretty efficient in dovetailing cancellation due to death and activation for spouse.

If you read the previous posts, there's lots of really good info on how SSA does payments and is required to do.

It's really important to keep in mind that IF you do not live the entire month, the check(s) deposited (SS and any other retirements paid) the next month will be clawed back from the bank account. If there $ not still there, your surviving spouse will get NSF charges each time SSA or the retirement group attempts to do their required clawback.

My mom died almost at the end of the month. Both SSA and federal retirement (from my dad) were deposited into her account on the 3rd of the following month. SSA clawback within 3 weeks; fed's was 7 weeks later. If I had taken the $ out, there would have been $ 30 NSF charges each time an clawback attempt was made. You really need to try to have a permanent set aside in the account of whatever amount is your "income" each month if this account is used to pay bills as there will be a gap of maybe 3-4 weeks till the survivor payments start. The banks can freeze an account that has NSF charges outstanding which snowballs problems for the surviving spouse who is already stressed.
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Why do we owe the money? We are paid a month behind I pay my bills and i die. If they want the money back that puts my wife bills a month behind.And she wont have the money to pay it back.How can that work?
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My Mother passed July 1 of this year and her check was deposited on the 2nd of July. A few weeks later I looked into her account and it was a negative 1897.00 dollars. Social Security had frozen my mom's account and the money had already been removed. I was recently approved for disability so does that mean that they will take that money out of my check? Do I need to call them or what.
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My Mother passed July 1 of this year and her check was deposited on the 2nd of July. A few weeks later I looked into her account and it was a negative 1897.00 dollars. Social Security had frozen my mom's account and the money had already been removed. I was recently approved for disability so does that mean that they will take that money out of my check? Do I need to call them or what.
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My mother passed away on June 19th. Both her VA Pension and SS checks had to be returned. I had to mail the VA a check. SS took it out of the account. It says right on the website that the check has to be returned.
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http://www.elderlawanswers.com/what-to-do-when-a-social-security-beneficiary-dies-14683
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Hope this helps.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/EN-05-10008.pdf
and
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/forms/ssa-1724.html
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I believe you all have misread my post/question. My Mom died on AUGUST 1st ... she was alive the entire month of JULY. I believe my siblings and myself are entitled to this check. I've read nothing about recipient having to be alive on the day the deposit was made. That should be irrelevant as the payment in August was for JULY.
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The check your mom received in the month she died is always pulled back. You owe the money.
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my understanding is that SS is for the previous month and the entitled person must be living on the day the check is paid/deposited otherwise, it is returned.
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My Mom passed away on 8/1/15. Her SS check was deposited 8/3/15, BUT as we all know, that check was for the month of July. She was alive the entire month of July but SS took back the money anyhow. How do we go about getting this money back?
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My husband died on November 29. His SS was deposited on Dec 7. Should I do anything about that, or just assume that SS will take it back?
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Yes. The month the person dies, they can fail to send check, or directly deposit it and if it has been deposited it can be revoked at SS's will. Sorry :( I know those funds certainly can help a great deal with funeral/end of life care med. expenses.
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SS told me that the check must be payed back even if the person dies on the last day of the month. That seems unfair to me. I think the check should be pro-rated.
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JessieBelle, I have to agree with Ishmael..... SS told me that a person can live one minute into a new month and they would still be entitled to their benefits.
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Yes, they can take the money back out. If a person on SS dies during the month, the money is taken back by the SSA, no matter what day of the month the person died. They are then given a death benefit of a small amount of money. When my father died, SS did not take back his money for the month. It is probably because he had a surviving spouse who qualified for his check. I do not know why they did not take back either his or her check. We expected them to, so it was confusing. So I guess the best answer is: yes, they can take it back, but sometimes they don't.
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It seems pretty simple:

"Social Security benefits are paid on a monthly basis. The check (or direct deposit) for each month’s benefit is issued in the following month. For example, the check that an individual receives in February is for the benefit payable for January. This is referred to as a retrospective payment system. If a recipient dies late in the month, family members or the executor of the estate may not notify the Social Security Administration (SSA) in time to stop the payment. Subsequently, they are informed that the check must be returned to the government. Members of Congress are asked often to support legislation that would provide a full or partial benefit payment for the month of death."

So it looks like you have been cheated. Good luck getting it cleared up.

My grandmother passed away on November 29, and that ended up being about a 3 thousand dollar difference. What's bizarre is that hospice was essentially "putting her to sleep" which means it could have been easily deferred. Not that I would have chosen to do that, but sitting at my 6 day vigil at the hospice wing, I couldn't help but think about all the bill-paying hardships that many of the survivors must face in end-of-the-month cases. And how tough would it be anyway to help them by having the final checks be pro-rated?
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I am not sure but I was told that if someone passed away the check had to be returned since person didn't live all month.
Like I said......someone told me this and it wasn't the ss people.
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