Collecting a monthly Social Security check is a relief for millions of United States citizens. In these times of inflation where the price of everything keeps increasing, having a steady income such as a Social Security benefit can be a very good thing for everyone.
However, starting to collect a Social Security check does not mean having it forever. Everyone could lose their pension check at some point in their lives. Not only that, but it is also possible to lose part of your retirement check.
Not everyone has to go through this situation. While it is true that none of these Americans usually lose their Social Security checks, it is within the realm of possibility. If we don’t want our retirement money to stop coming to us, we must avoid these situations.
Ways to Lose Your Social Security Check
Among these ways to lose Social Security, there are some that cause us to lose all of it and others that cause us to lose part of our monthly money. We must avoid this at all costs, since this money is very important to have the best possible life in our retirement.
- Applying for Early Retirement Age. Retirement age has a huge influence on the amount of your Social Security check. Therefore, depending on the age at which we request our retirement, we will have more or less money. Thus, requesting early retirement means losing 30% of our pension contributions. That means that if we have a $2,000 benefit thanks to our work over the years, at the end we will receive a check for only $1,400 a month.
- Paying taxes. All retirees earning more than $25,000 as a single taxpayer or $32,000 as a couple taxpayer, 85% of Social Security could be taxable. So watch out for this so you don’t lose money in taxes.
- Going to jail. The Administration will stop your Social Security benefit if you have to go to jail for more than 30 days. The SSA will send you payments again in the month after you get out of jail. During the time a citizen is in prison, he or she will not be able to collect checks from SSA, but a spouse or children can if they are eligible.
In these three ways, you may lose part of your Social Security check or all of your money. As for taxes, remember that there are states where you don’t have to pay taxes, so you can always move to one of them to avoid state taxes.