Social Security survivor benefits in limbo during 18th birthday month - check or direct deposit?

Yes, they'll send a paper check for that transition month. The same thing happened with my nephew last year. SSA has this weird gap where they treat the child as no longer under the parent's financial control but not yet able to manage their own benefits. The check should arrive around the same time the direct deposit would have, addressed to your son. Make sure your mailing address is current in the system!

they will prolly send a check but when my daughter turned 18 last yr they just stopped paying for 2 months!!! had to go to the office and spend 3 hours fixing it. make sure u call them the day after his bday to confirm everything is set up right

This is a common issue with survivor benefits during the transition to age 18 while still in school. Here's what typically happens: 1. For the month of the 18th birthday, SSA will issue a paper check made out to your son. 2. The day after his 18th birthday, he should create his own my Social Security account and set up direct deposit for his own bank account. 3. If he doesn't have a bank account yet, he should open one before his birthday so the information is ready. 4. The benefits will continue uninterrupted until graduation as long as he's still attending school full-time. Make sure he brings his ID when depositing the check, as some banks have policies about depositing government checks for new 18-year-olds.

I went through this EXACT situation with my daughter last year! So frustrated with how SSA handles this transition. We ended up getting a paper check that sat at the post office for 2 weeks because it was sent certified mail and nobody told us! Then when my daughter tried to deposit it, the bank gave her a hard time because she had just turned 18 and they weren't familiar with survivor benefit checks. Have your son call SSA himself the day after his birthday. I found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped us actually get through to a real person at SSA without waiting hours. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. After that nightmare month, everything went smoothly with direct deposit.

when my kid turned 18 he just kept getting direct deposit no problems at all. but we had signed him up for his own account at 17 and they let us do it with no issues. maybe try again with a different agent??? sometimes they don't know there own rules lol

Why are they extending benefits until graduation? I thought survivor benefits ALWAYS ended at 18 no matter what? My daughter's got cut off on her 18th birthday even though she was still in high school. Did the rules change?

Just wanted to say congrats on your son graduating soon! Managing these benefits is so stressful but it sounds like you're really on top of things. 👏

One more important thing - once your son turns 18, he'll need to complete Form SSA-1372 to verify his student status for the remaining benefits through graduation. Sometimes SSA sends this automatically, but often they don't. You can download it from the SSA website and have the school certify his enrollment status. This prevents any interruption for his May-June benefits.

The March submission should be sufficient. The form is valid for the entire period certified by the school. Just keep a copy of the completed form in case there are any questions about his continuing eligibility.

good luck with the check my son's took forever to come and we kept calling and they said be patient but then finally we had to go to the office and found out they had the wrong address even tho nothing changed!! make sure they have everything right in the system