My question concerns a reclamation made on my checking account. My mother was receiving her social security payment direct deposit to her checking account. Since we use the same bank, I always helped with her bill payments by transferring monies, etc. When her final check was deposited, she had been in the hospital for about 2-3 weeks. As she was unable to write checks and as her power of attorney, I transferred money from her account to mine in order to pay her rent, utilities, and additional bills directly online. She died 1 or 2 days before the end of the month (February 27, 2008) and now social security wants that months payment back because she was not alive for the full month! They have now put a hold on my checking account (March 19, 2010) two years after the fact to reclaim the amount. I have been unemployed for two months and all I receive is unemployment compensation, and now have not one penny available to me. HELP!! What can I do? Are they allowed to do this after TWO YEARS?? Thank you. Dee

It is my understanding that any retirement benefits checks are issued or deposited into the recipient's account AFTER the month that they were alive. For example. I lived the entire month of January. My January's check would be deposited in February - not paid in advance in January.

You need to speak to someone in person at Social Security to see if that is the case. I know from first hand that they are doing this live the month and get paid the next month now. Your mother may have been on the old system where she got paid "in advance" instead of after the fact. So, if that is the case then yes, they can indeed take the funds back.

This was the month she was alive and I paid all her bills with it.

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I found this question on the SS web site

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My mother, a widow, died in late April. Social Security tells me that I must return her April benefit (paid in May) even though she was alive most of the month. Why is this?

Answer
Social Security benefits are not pro-rated. To be entitled to a Social Security benefit check for a given month, the person must be alive the entire month. No benefit is payable for the month of death.

This provision has been in the law since 1939 and can be changed only by an amendment to the Social Security Act. The legislative history of this provision does not show why benefits are not payable for the month of death. However, the provision complements the provision of the law that allows us to pay survivors benefits for the entire month of death.


You can return the check to your local Social Security office. If the payment is made by direct depost, the U.S. Treasury will automatically debit the bank account

I found this question on the ss web site, may help.