There are ten main reasons why a citizen of the United States might stop receiving a Social Security retirement check. Although once we start collecting one of these payments we should have no problems continuing to get our check, it is also true that sometimes we might stop receiving the benefit.
If this is the case, we should know that we could reapply for the check, although this is not always possible. It all depends on the individual situation, so it’s a good idea to check everything before doing anything. If we have any problems, we can always contact the Social Security Administration directly and resolve any questions we may have.
Why could I stop receiving Social Security payments?
These ten main reasons why Social Security might stop sending us our monthly retirement check are more important than they might at first appear. If our retirement payment stops arriving in our checking account, it is possible that we are in one of these groups.
The situations that we should avoid when we have a check from Social Security are the following:
- Income too high before full retirement. If you decide to continue working after you start receiving Social Security and your income exceeds certain limits, your payment may be reduced or even suspended, especially if you have not yet reached full retirement age.
- Moving to a country where benefits cannot be sent. If you move to a place like Cuba or North Korea, where the US government cannot send you payments, Social Security will suspend benefits.
- Death of the benefit holder. When a person receiving Social Security dies, payments automatically stop. However, their family members may be eligible for survivor’s benefits.
- Failure to respond to Social Security requests. If the SSA sends you letters requesting information or updates and you do not respond, you could face a temporary suspension of your payments until you update your situation.
- Debts to the federal government. In some cases, if you owe money to the government, for example, for unpaid taxes or federal loans, Social Security could withhold part of your payments to cover those debts.
- Being imprisoned. If you are in prison for more than 30 days due to a criminal conviction, you will temporarily lose your right to receive Social Security benefits for the duration of your imprisonment.
- Fraud or error in your application. If Social Security discovers that there was an error in your application or that you got benefits improperly, they can suspend your payments and ask you to return the money.
- Changes in your immigration status. If you are a non-citizen resident and lose your legal status in the US, Social Security benefits may be suspended.
- Failure to keep your information up to date. If you do not update your bank details or your address when Social Security asks you to, you could stop getting your payments, as they will not be able to send them correctly.
- Review of your work credits. If Social Security reviews your work history and determines that you do not meet the credit requirements to receive benefits, they could suspend them.
Knowing all this, we can more effectively avoid the unpleasant situation of being left without a Social Security payment. No American wants to find themselves in that situation, so we must bear it in mind.