I have received a letter from social security stating "we changed your monthly benefit to $_______ as of October 2020. We found that your prior amount was incorrect. We changed your benefit amount to give you credit for your earnings. We did not include these earnings when we figured your benefit amount before."
The amount difference is about $48 more a month. My question is should they probably be going back & giving me this amount from the beginning when I started drawing social security???? Please advise.

Hi,

Yes, if your benefit amount was recomputed to included a higher year of earnings, the effective date of the increase would be January of the year following the year in which you had the earnings. For example, if 2019 was the higher earnings year that's now being included in the calculation of your benefit rate, the benefit increase would be effective with your benefit payment for the month of January 2020. But, if your first month of benefit entitlement was after January, your retroactive benefits would only go back to your month of entitlement.

Best, Jerry