Although the United States Social Security Administration issues a large number of monthly checks, not all Americans are able to get one. There are certain exceptions to this, as the Administration does not send the checks to all Americans who intend to get one of these monthly checks.
In some cases it is possible to reverse this situation, but in other cases it may be impossible. Therefore, if you are thinking of retiring, you should be careful not to fall into one of the groups that cannot get a Social Security payment.
If you are able to reverse the situation, you should take action as soon as possible. If you let too much time go by, you may never get a check. If you meet the mandatory requirements to get a check, you will be able to claim it without any problems.
Those Americans who are eligible for Social Security payments are entitled to 12 annual payments. Each of these payments is the same amount, so each month we will get the same check in our checking account.
Americans who can’t get a Social Security payment
Whether we are thinking about applying for Social Security retirement or not, there are other ways to retire. If we are in a disadvantageous situation to ask for these checks we can always make a different retirement plan.
Therefore, if you are within these groups of Americans you will not be able to get your monthly benefit:
Americans with insufficient work credits
In order to apply for a Social Security retirement check it is mandatory to have a minimum number of work credits. This means that if we do not reach 40 work credits we will not be able to apply for a retirement check.
In total, the years worked to reach that 40 credit is 10 years. And it doesn’t matter if we work 10 years in a row or at different times. What we do have to keep in mind is that by getting 40 work credits we will not reach a very large benefit.
Government or railroad employees do not have Social Security
Those Americans who work in the Civil Service Retirement System (recently replaced by the Federal Employees Retirement System) are not eligible for Social Security. This group has its own retirement system, so we must abide by its rules to get payment.
However, any other type of retirement plan is accessible with these jobs, so we can get retirement in other ways. But what is certain is that the SSA will not pay a check to this group regardless of years worked.
Retirees in some foreign countries
If we live in Cuba or North Korea we will not be able to get a check from Social Security. although this sounds strange, the truth is that this is the case. But there is no need to worry if the retired citizen has enough money to live sufficiently in those countries.
The moment the retiree returns to the United States, he or she gets the Social Security benefits withheld during the time he or she has lived abroad. Therefore, we do not collect the payment during the time we live there, but if we return to the United States we do get that money.
If you avoid taxes, say goodbye to Social Security
If we are self-employed, we must pay the appropriate taxes. On all tax returns we must contribute the money we earn each quarter and each year. If we do not do this, we will not get Social Security when we want to retire.
Also, it is important to keep all the documents to present at the time of retirement. If we do not have the documents we could have problems justifying to Social Security the money we have contributed as independent workers.