Social Security retirement benefits reach thousands of households in the United States each month, but it is true that sometimes we may stop collecting our retirement check. While it is true that once we start collecting Social Security checks, we usually continue to collect them without any problems, sometimes we encounter setbacks.
In the case of certain actions, we could stop collecting the retirement benefit. This would mean that we would not have the monthly income from Social Security and, therefore, we could find ourselves in a somewhat uncomfortable financial situation. But the truth is that we could also recover the check even if we have lost it.
It all depends on your personal situation, but knowing the main reasons why the Social Security Administration stops sending retirement checks makes it easier to be fully organized and avoid all kinds of negative situations. By paying attention to all the points to be taken into account we should not have any problems.
Reasons why we may lose our Social Security benefits
There are seven main reasons why the Social Security Administration may stop sending us retirement payments. In this case we are talking about age retirement payment, although some points may apply to Disability checks as well.
Thus, the reasons why we could lose the check are:
- Excess Earned Income: If you work before reaching Full Retirement Age and exceed the allowable earnings limit, the SSA may reduce or suspend your check.
- Failure to file a proper tax return: If you have additional earnings and do not report them correctly, Social Security may suspend your benefit until you regularize the situation.
- Residency outside the United States: If you live in countries where the SSA doesn’t send payments (such as North Korea or Cuba), they can withhold your check. You could also lose your benefit if you spend too much time out of the country without meeting the requirements.
- Criminal convictions or incarceration: If you are convicted and spend more than 30 days in prison, the SSA suspends your payments until you get out.
- Fraud or false information: If you provided incorrect or misleading information when you applied for your benefit, the SSA may revoke your payment and demand your money back.
- Failure to respond to SSA: If SSA requests information to verify your eligibility and you do not respond, your check may be temporarily stopped.
- Death of the beneficiary: Payments stop immediately upon death, and any improper collections must be refunded.
But, as mentioned above, it is possible to recover the payment after it is lost, although it will depend on the situation the United States citizen is in at the time the check is requested to be reinstated.