Mysterious $26.20 one-time Social Security payment - should I be concerned?

Could be retroactive cola adjustment. sometimes they issue small payments separate when they calculate something owed to you. i wouldnt worry about it too much, but check your mysocialsecurity account online, it might explain it there.

This is likely a retroactive adjustment related to the 2025 COLA calculation. The main COLA increase is applied to your regular payments, but sometimes there are small discrepancies in the calculation that get paid separately. This happens when they need to adjust something specific to your benefit computation. You can verify this by checking your MySocialSecurity account - look for a message in your notification center or review the payment history section. If nothing shows up there, you should call SSA for clarification. Don't spend the money until you're sure what it's for.

I HAD THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPEN!!!! Mine was $31.44 though. Called SSA and sat on hold for 2.5 HOURS only to get disconnected. Tried again next day and finally got through. They said it was an underpayment correction from last year's medicare premium adjustment. Check if your Part B premium changed last year - might be related to that!!

I've had small random payments show up from SSA over the years. Usually they're from recalculations of previous payments. Most likely scenarios: 1. Medicare premium adjustment (retroactive) 2. COLA calculation refinement 3. Earnings record update that slightly changed your benefit amount 4. Tax withholding adjustment You should definitely call to confirm. If you're having trouble getting through to an agent, I recommend using Claimyr (claimyr.com). It got me through to an SSA agent in about 20 minutes last month when I had an issue with my retirement benefits. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Much better than spending hours on hold only to get disconnected!

Before you spend too much time investigating this, check if you receive both SSDI and survivors benefits on the same day or different days each month. The rules for payment timing can be complex when you receive dual entitlements. If you normally receive your survivors benefit on the 3rd and SSDI on the 3rd Wednesday, but there was a processing delay with one payment last month due to a weekend or holiday, this could be a "catch-up" payment for the difference. If SSA made an adjustment to either benefit calculation (such as your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings or Primary Insurance Amount), they might issue small retroactive payments like this. Also check if there was any change to tax withholding instructions. Document the payment details including the exact deposit date and description. This will be helpful if you need to discuss it with SSA.

my brother got a small payment like that last year and ignored it. then 6 months later they sent him a letter saying it was a mistake and he had to pay it back! make sure u find out what it is asap

I get ssdi and ssi and sometimes they do adjustments like that. could be from when they did the COLA calculations. did u move or change any info with them in past year? that can trigger recalculations too

I see from your comments that you're planning to call SSA. When you do, make sure to ask specifically for a "payment explanation." The representative should be able to pull up a transaction code associated with that payment that will explain exactly what it was for. Common codes for small adjustments include: - 396/397: COLA adjustment - 310: Medicare premium adjustment - 150: Retroactive payment - 456: Taxation adjustment It's important to get this documented in case there's ever a question about it in the future. Also, verify if this impacts your total expected 2025 benefits in any way or if it was strictly a one-time correction for a past period.

I just realized something - check if this might be related to the Medicare Part B premium adjustment that was announced for 2025. The standard premium went up to $174.70 (from $164.90 in 2024), but if you were entitled to a smaller increase based on the "hold harmless" provision, they might have made an adjustment. Did your Medicare premium change recently?