#6 Going to jail means losing your payments
It is unlikely that you will end up incarcerated, but it is also better to be in the know about these things than let them come over you as a surprise. And in any case, it can be useful to know about these things so that if you know someone who has ended up in a situation where they will end up incarcerated, you can either tell them what will happen or help calm their nerves if they are worried they will lose their Social Security benefits.
Generally speaking, the SSA will stop making any payments to any person who has been criminally convicted and is incarcerated for more than 30 days. Yet, this does not mean that you will lose your benefits forever! It will not happen immediately, but the SSA can resume sending the payments starting the following month after the person has been released from prison.
Even if a person is incarcerated and cannot receive any benefits, the dependents and spouse of the person are not subject to the rule, and they will continue to receive the benefits as long as they are still considered eligible to receive them.
When it comes to SSDIs, the rule remains the same as with traditional Social Security. If you are spending time in jail for more than 30 days, then the payments will be suspended, and they will resume the month after the person is released. However, if the person is set to spend more than 12 months behind bars, then the payments will be terminated, and after they are released, the person will have to reapply.
What’s more, if the person is released on parole, then the SSA will not consider them eligible for receiving disability benefits.
Now you know what can threaten your Social Security Benefits but do you know how you can maximize the amount you are going to receive? Read all about how you can increase your payments here!
8 Responses
How do you find out how much a widows pension will be before you sign up?
Another way to lose SS benefits (which I hope does not apply to any readers here): Move to a country that the USA does not have diplomatic relations with, such as North Korea, Iran (I think), and there are a few others.
Did not know about ways we can lose Social Security. Please tell me what to look for or do.
My husband and I have been married for 59 years this October. We inherited his family’s farm 30 years ago and paying taxes with very little income from it. My husband decided to sell it two years ago. I was relieved over our finances until we found out that our Social Security which would have been increased this year took a definite decrease after IRS informed Social Security about our income from the sale of the farm. With the proposed increase in SS benefits we would have been better off to have kept the farm and left it to our children. Now we are dependent on using money from the sale of the farm to live on. I know “life” isn’t fair, but it seems things never get better. just worse.
I think if anyone is caught selling or stealing other peoples medicine or on benefits getting caught doing those things should lose benefits.
Getting convicted of a felony.
I have no idea that o could ever loss my SS
Thanks for giving me this information. As a matter of fact, I’m among those who have lost part of their Social
Security earnings as of January 1, 2024. My monthly benefits shrunk from $1,015.70 to $579.60 without courtesy of a heads-up to expect the drastic change. I’m still waiting for the “why” to this unexpected act.