Thank you all for the helpful responses. I'm going to try contacting SSA directly to get a definitive answer for our situation. The Claimyr service someone mentioned sounds helpful since I've had trouble getting through on the phone before. I appreciate the clarification about Colorado recognizing common-law marriage, but it sounds like that alone won't help with the grandchildren's eligibility. Neither child has disabilities that would qualify for SSI, so that's unfortunately not an option either. I'll update this thread if I learn anything that might help others in similar situations.

Just wanted to add another perspective here - I work in family law and see situations like this frequently. While the adoption route seems daunting with teenagers, it's actually not uncommon and can still provide benefits. Colorado has a streamlined process for stepparent adoption when there's been long-term care, and since you have conservatorship already, that demonstrates the legal relationship. Even if your partner adopts them at 14 and 16, they could still qualify for student benefits through age 19 if they're in high school, which could help with college costs. The adoption might also help with other things like medical decisions, inheritance, and family medical leave. It's worth consulting with a family attorney who specializes in these situations - many offer free consultations and can walk you through the process and timeline.

I work in payroll administration and see this issue fairly often. What likely happened is that your employer submitted your W-2 information to SSA with either a transposed digit in your SSN or a slight name variation that prevented the automated matching system from crediting the earnings to your record. The SSA rep can see the "unmatched" wage data in their system - it's there, but it's essentially in limbo because the computer couldn't definitively match it to your specific earnings record. This is why she could tell you the employers and earnings amount but it's not showing up in your official record. For $11K from 1999, honestly it's probably not worth the paperwork hassle unless you're close to retirement and every dollar counts. The indexed value of those earnings for benefit calculation purposes would be relatively small compared to your more recent work years. If you're curious about the exact process, you could always request a detailed earnings inquiry from SSA, but based on what you've described, this sounds like a classic case of employer reporting error that created an unmatched record.

I had a similar issue with missing earnings from 2003! When I called SSA about it, the representative could see my employer information and even knew how much I made that year, but it wasn't showing up in my actual earnings record. She explained that sometimes the IRS data and SSA records don't sync properly due to reporting errors. In my case, it turned out my employer had submitted my W-2 with one digit wrong in my Social Security number. The earnings were sitting in SSA's system as "unmatched" - they had the data but couldn't link it to my record because of the SSN mismatch. I ended up fixing mine because I was worried about qualifying for disability benefits at the time, but it took about 6 months and a lot of paperwork. For your situation with $11K from 1999, the rep is probably right that it won't significantly impact your benefits. Those older earnings get indexed for inflation, but they're still relatively small compared to what you'd earn in more recent years. The fact that she mentioned employers from different years makes sense too - they're probably looking at a screen that shows multiple years of tax data all at once.

Update your address with SSA if you've moved recently! I learned this the hard way - they were trying to send me documents about my earnings correction but had my old address. Almost delayed my whole case by months!

I went through something very similar about 3 years ago! Had 4 years of county government work that were showing as zeros even though I definitely paid into SS. The key thing that helped me was contacting the HR department of my old employer - they were able to provide a verification letter showing my employment dates and that FICA taxes were withheld. Even though it was from the early 90s, they still had the records in their system. For law enforcement positions, there's sometimes confusion because some departments participate in both SS and a pension system, while others opt out entirely. But since you remember seeing FICA deductions, you should definitely pursue this. The increase in my monthly benefit was about $180/month once they added those missing years, and I got backpay for almost 2 years. It's worth the hassle! Just be persistent with SSA - they move slowly but they will eventually get it right.

My sister had this exact problem last year and when she finally got through to someone at Social Security they told her it would be fixed "automatically" on the next payment but it wasn't! She had to call THREE more times! Just be persistent and keep calling until they fix it.

Just to add another important point - make sure you check both your AND your wife's benefits since you mentioned you're both on Medicare. Sometimes these errors can affect one account but not the other, especially if you enrolled at different times or have different IRMAA tiers. Also, if you do need to call SSA, have your Medicare card, recent Social Security statement, and the Medicare premium notice all ready before the call. The more prepared you are with documentation numbers, the faster they can help resolve the issue.

Update: Just received my letter in the mail today explaining the COLA adjustment! It says my first increased payment will be on the 4th Wednesday of this month, and the lump sum for retroactive adjustments will come within 10 business days after that. Going to mark my calendar and stop worrying. Thanks everyone for the helpful info!

Just wanted to share my experience for anyone still waiting - I'm also on the 4th Wednesday payment schedule and haven't received mine yet, but after reading all these responses I'm feeling much more confident about the timeline. It's really helpful to see that the SSA website doesn't update right away and that the money often shows up before any letters. I've been checking my bank account obsessively but now I know to just wait for my regular payment date. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences and especially to those who provided the official schedule breakdown - this community is so valuable for getting real information when the official channels are hard to reach!