Social Security withheld my deceased husband's last benefit payment - can his estate claim it?

Yes, your husband's estate is absolutely entitled to his March payment. Social Security benefits are paid in the month following the month they are due for, so the March payment received in April was legitimately his since he was alive the entire month of March. Unfortunately, SSA's underpayment claims for deceased beneficiaries can take 4-6 months to process. They have to verify the person filing is the proper payee (executor/administrator) and that all documentation is in order. The fact that they confirmed it's in queue is actually good news - it means they have your claim and it's in process.

when my dad died last year they took back his last payment too. i think its standard procedure for them to pull back any recent deposits when someone dies and then sort it out later. took us like 5 months to get it back to his estate so your timeline sounds normal tbh

THEY DID THE SAME THING TO ME when my wife died!!! Took back her last check even though she was alive most of that month! I had to fight with them for 6 MONTHS to get it back. The whole system is designed to frustrate you into giving up. Keep calling them EVERY WEEK until they pay what they owe!!

I'm going through almost the exact same situation with my mom's benefits! She passed in May, and they pulled back her April payment that came on May 3rd. We filed the estate claim in June and still waiting too. One thing I learned - make sure you submitted the correct form. For underpayments to an estate, you need the SSA-1724 form specifically. If you submitted something else, that might be causing the delay. Also, did you include the letters testamentary or other proof that you're the executor? They won't process without that.

I've had success using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to actually reach someone at Social Security when dealing with my father's estate issues. They got me through to a real person in under 20 minutes when I had been trying for weeks on my own. They have a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU For estate issues like this, speaking with someone directly can often help identify if there's a specific hold-up or missing document that's causing the delay. Much better than just waiting indefinitely.

my condolences for your loss. this happened to my neighbor and they eventually got the money back but it took forever. something about how they have to verify everything twice for estates. have you tried calling the national number? sometimes they can see more info than the local office people

To clarify the rules here: 1. Social Security benefits are paid in arrears (the payment for March comes in April) 2. A beneficiary must be alive for the ENTIRE month to be entitled to that month's payment 3. Since your husband was alive all of March, his estate is entitled to the March payment 4. The proper form for estate underpayments is SSA-1724 5. Processing time for underpayments to estates typically takes 4-6 months One thing to check: did SSA actually receive the funds back from the bank? Sometimes there's a delay if the bank hasn't returned the reclaimed funds to SSA yet. The claim won't process until they've confirmed the funds are back in their system. It sounds like you've done everything correctly. At this point, I would suggest calling the national number (1-800-772-1213) and specifically asking if there are any notes about why the claim is delayed or if there are any issues with the documentation.

Sorry I'm a bit confused... So the check for March (received in April) should go to the estate, but the check for April won't be paid at all because he died during April? Is that correct? Just trying to understand how this all works for when I need to deal with this someday.

Update us when you finally get this resolved! These bureaucrats need to be held accountable for making grieving families jump through hoops for money they're owed!!!