What if my Social Security benefit is the wrong amount?

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Mistaken Social Security payments are rare, but with the Social Security Administration (SSA) delivering monthly benefits to more than 73 million people, they do happen.


From the 2015 through 2022 federal fiscal years, the SSA paid out nearly $8.6 trillion in retirement benefits, survivor benefits, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental


Security Income (SSI), according to a July 2024 report from the agency’s Office of the Inspector General. About $71.8 billion, or 0.84 percent, were “improper payments,” most of them


overpayments to beneficiaries.


If you believe you were either overpaid or underpaid by Social Security, tell the SSA as soon as possible. Failing to report the error in a timely way can lead to months of incorrect


payments along with the eventual hassle of sorting it out.


Members only Why Social Security payment errors happen


Incorrect payments occur for a variety of reasons:

The SSA might be at fault — a computational error, or a failure to obtain or act on information relevant to a recipient's eligibility or


benefit amount.A beneficiary might have neglected to notify Social Security of, or provided incorrect data about, a life event that can affect benefits, such as a change in income or a


death in the family.Your case might not be finished. If a beneficiary appeals a loss or reduction of benefits, the SSA is required in some instances to keep paying the amount in question


until the case is decided. If the appeal fails, then the beneficiary was getting the “wrong” amount during this time.


Mistakes are most prevalent in SSDI and, especially, SSI, the other SSA-administered benefit that serves people with disabilities.


Eligibility for these programs is subject to strict limits on work activity and, in the case of SSI, ceilings on income and financial resources. Unreported or unidentified income and assets


are leading causes of payment errors, according to Social Security.


In the 2023 fiscal year, SSI recipients were overpaid by an estimated $4.6 billion, accounting for 8 percent of total payments under the program, according to an SSA report to the U.S.


Office of Management and Budget. Overpayments of retirement benefits, survivor benefits and SSDI totaled $6.5 billion in that year but amounted to only 0.5 percent of total payments in those


categories, the agency reports.