My husband receive his June 2017 payment July 3, 2017. We have been told by SS Agents that he will receive $9000.00 in back pay. My husband died, July 6, 2017 and now I am being told his back payment will not be given to his family because of his death. Is this true? My husband was approved for these back payments, I would believe they should due to the fact he was awarded his award letter. Please let me know how to proceed. Thank you very much.

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

If your husband was due back pay from Social Security it should be payable to someone, most likely to you as his widow. When Social Security owes benefits to a deceased person, it's referred to as an underpayment. A specific order of payment is used to determine who is entitled to claim the underpayment, as is explained on Social Security's website: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-1724.html.

If you are entitled to widow's benefits on your husband's Social Security record, you should automatically be paid any underpayment that your husband was due. Otherwise, you may need to complete and submit a form SSA-1724 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-1724.pdf) in order to claim the underpayment.

Best, Jerry