There are 10 primary reasons why a United States citizen may discontinue receiving a Social Security retirement benefit. Although once we begin collecting one of these payments, we should have no trouble continuing to receive our check, it is true that we may occasionally stop receiving the benefit.
If that’s the case, we should know that we can reapply for the check, albeit this isn’t always an option. It all depends on the individual case, therefore it’s best to double-check everything before proceeding. If we have any problems, we may always call the Social Security Administration and have our questions answered.
Why could I stop receiving Social Security payments?
These ten primary reasons why Social Security may stop delivering us our monthly retirement checks are more essential than you would think. If our retirement check does not arrive in our bank account, we may be 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.
By understanding this, we may better prepare to prevent missing Social Security payments. No American wants to be in that scenario, therefore we must keep it in mind.
