I retired in January at the age of 62 and 2 months. In February I received a letter that said I would receive x amount of dollars per month beginning the 4th Wednesday of March and will continue every 4th Wednesday of each month thereafter. I did not receive my February payment in March so I went to the local office and was told my payment was on hold and they would get it taken care of. Needless to say, every month has been a hassle receiving my retirement benefits. I found out they issued critical payments and are requesting I pay the money back. What happened to my February - October benefits? Those funds have not been paid to me, only the critical payments. They are telling me they are going to hold my money until they receive the funds back but I haven't received my February thru October payments. Why can't the money for the critical payments come from the money they should have paid from February thru October? This truly is a mess. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

I can't tell whether you have received the proper amount of benefits or not. What must have happened in your case is that your benefits were inadvertently not started timely. Glitches like that happen occasionally, so Social Security has a process for issuing critical, or emergency, payments outside of the regular payment system. Regardless of the method of payment used, if you were paid the proper amount for the proper months, you should not be overpaid.

If Social Security is asking you to repay benefits to which you believe you were entitled, you can appeal their overpayment decision. You must appeal within 60 days of the date of the notice telling you about the overpayment, so be sure to submit your request timely.

Best, Jerry