Social Security deposit after death - how long until SSA reclaims payment?

Social Security benefits are paid for the PREVIOUS month, NOT the current one. So the payment that arrived on August 20th was actually for JULY, not August. Since your father was alive for all of July, that payment is legitimately his and should be part of his estate. The bank should not be holding it! Print out the SSA rules and take them to the bank manager.

I went through this exact situation when my mother died last year. It took the SSA about 3-4 weeks to pull back the payment after the death was reported. The bank will keep the account frozen until that happens, unfortunately. There's nothing you can do to speed up the process - it's all on the SSA's timeline. Once they've reclaimed the payment, the bank should let you access the remaining funds as the POD beneficiary.

UGH the whole process is so frustrating!!! When my husband died, it took almost 2 MONTHS for ssa to take back his last check. The bank froze EVERYTHING even though i was joint on the account and I couldn't pay bills!!!! Then I couldn't even apply for survivor benefits until they finished processing the reclamation. The SSA system is BROKEN!!

They usually do this pretty quick, like 2-3 weeks from when they get notified of the death. But I waited almost 2 months once because the funeral home didn't report it right away like they promised. Make sure somebody actually reported the death to SSA.

I'm sorry for your loss. When my aunt passed, I had trouble reaching SSA about a similar issue for weeks - busy signals and disconnections. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual SSA agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold all day. They have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. The agent was able to confirm exactly when they'd process the reclamation and when I could expect to access the remaining funds. Saved me a lot of anxiety not having to guess about the timeline.

Wait I'm really confused now. So the money DOES go back to Social Security? But I thought if someone dies on the 10th, they'd be entitled to 1/3 of the monthly benefit since they were alive for 10 days? Do they really take back the entire payment??

my dad died last yr and the bank actually sent the $ back to SSA before I even knew what happened! then i had to wait like 6 wks before they would release the rest of his money to me as POD. such a pain dealing with all this while grieving :

One important thing to remember - while you're waiting for SSA to reclaim the payment, you should also apply for the lump-sum death benefit of $255 if you're eligible (spouse or dependent child). And if you were married to your father's ex, you might qualify for survivor benefits depending on your age and the length of the marriage. Don't wait on dealing with those benefits even while this reclamation is processing.

BTW make sure after they take back this payment you check if your dad might have been underpaid at some point with SS. My uncle found out after his wife died that she had been underpaid for 2 yrs and got a nice check later. worth looking into.