Social Security provides income amounts, accumulated credits and estimates of benefits on statements issued to workers, but if you receive a statement and believe something just is not right, you should not just let it go because Social Security does make mistakes.
A recent example was highlighted by a story in the Detroit Free Press. A brief excerpt from that story is below.
In an odd quirk, Social Security finally acknowledged in early August that a glitch caused the agency to send out some incorrect “On Request” paper statements. The troubled reports were triggered if you asked for information on your Social Security account via a paper form, known as an SSA-7004.
“Of the tens of thousands of paper requests the agency receives annually, less than 1% of those statements issued contained errors,” according to an email from Mark Hinkle, acting press officer in the national Social Security office.
Social Security said a coding issue caused errors on a very small number of the “On Request” statements that were issued since 2017. Hinkle said the statements displayed the correct estimated benefit amounts but the mistakes were made when the projected benefits were applied to incorrect ages at which the person would receive them.
Review Online
Creating an online Social Security account is an easy way to keep track of your Social Security statements in case something seems off. By comparing past statements with current ones, it provides for context to determine if there were some errors made. Having your statements available when you contact or visit Social Security can make things easier to sort out. Social Security insists that these are isolated incidents and most people’s statements are accurate, but it is always a good practice to periodically review your Social Security statements.
