my x husband died March 4, 2020. His social security check for Feb,2020 was deposited in our bank account on March 11, 2020 for $1725.oo. On March 24 the bank put a hold on that amount. I sent the death certificate to social security and got it back stamped WORKTRACK APRIL 3, 2920. The bank said I need to call social security for a hold release from the us treasury. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to get to talk to anyone at social security. Is there a way I can call the US treasury about this. ? Can you help with this?

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

I don't think that there's any way to contact the U.S. Treasury Department directly, but you wouldn't need to do that anyway. Banks are required to return to the Treasury Dept. any Social Security payments that are directly deposited in a person's bank account after the person's death.

When you refer to the deceased as your x-husband, I'm not sure if you mean that you were divorced or just that your husband is now deceased. Since your husband lived throughout February and died in March, his Social Security benefit for February that was deposited in March would be payable to someone as an underpayment. Social Security law specifies a priority order for the payment of underpayments, and if you're a widow then you'd likely be highest in priority to be able to claim the underpayment. However, surviving divorced spouses can't qualify for an underpayment except possibly as the legal representative of the deceased's estate.

The only way to claim a Social Security underpayment is by submitting a form SSA-1724 to Social Security. The priority order for claiming an underpayment can be found on the following Social Security website, along with a link to the form SSA-1724: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-1724.html. The completed form should be mailed to your local Social Security office, and their address can be found using the following Social Security website: https://secure.ssa.gov/ICON/main.jsp.

Best, Jerry