How Do I Get My Social Security Earnings Statement, Social Security is a kind of benefit received from SSA by disabled employees and in some cases, people who are dependent on disabled workers and also retired workers. If you are one living in the USA and are allowed to get SS benefits, it would be a nice idea if you go through your SS benefits every time no matter whether you want to claim them or not.
Are you keeping a track of the Social Security benefits you have? If not, then it may give you some losses. If you, being an American citizen, do not have any kind of clue if the govt. is keeping a perfect record of your earnings and the SS benefits you are permitted to in retirement.
How Do I Get My Social Security Earnings Statement
Are you using SS account online?
A number of American people started registering for online services by accessing their social security accounts to check their earnings records in the past 12 months according to the stats of the previous year. Only 1.6 million US citizens got mailed statements. You can get an idea from this thing that only a small portion of residents got notifications or updates on their Social Security benefits either by mail or online.
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Of course, it may be an effort by the government unintentionally to reduce the cost of sending statements of Social Security benefits in the form of statements to beneficiaries. If we see the stats of 2000, then anyone who was over 25 received a mailed statement each year in an automatic manner.
But these days, only Americans who have an age of over 60 years are not still getting benefits and even their paper statements are not sent to them by the government. It has been deduced that there is a lot to see that may give harmful impacts.
They are something stealing from them as a vital part of retirement planning and savings. So, to save yourself from getting scammed, you should be attentive and do some necessary things to maintain your Social Security account up-to-date.
Why do you need to check SS account?
When you retire, SS replaces a considerable piece of the income you lose, which may be 40% on average. To get an estimation of the benefits, the federal govt. makes use of the highest earnings for 35 years. If this situation would be the same and the govt. records include incorrect data related to your earnings, then the more chances, you may be losing some of your benefits in the end.
Apart from that, checking the Social Security account online is necessary to seek signs showing that someone is stealing your identity. If the earnings on your statement are not matching with your own records, then there is a possibility that someone is illegally accessing your SS number and using it for their benefit in any manner.
What do your Social Security statements include?
At the same time, you should also have an idea of what your statement shows. It shows a number of things.
- First of all, it gives you an exact idea of how much you have disbursed in Social Security and also Medicare taxes throughout your working years.
- Another estimation it may give you is how much you would obtain in SS benefits upon the completion of the full retirement age.
- You will come to know that you could be qualified for SS benefits if you become disabled and are unable to work, and also survivor benefits.
Of course, these just estimate that you would come to know. There are many factors that may impact the actual benefits you get during retirement age. Let’s know those factors:
- Cost-of-living extends to SS benefits.
- Ups and downs in your earnings in the coming days.
- Railroad employment, military service, or pensions earned through job on which you did not give tax of Social Security.
- Some certain modifications in Social Security.
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How can you get your SS statement?
To sustain the records of the Social Security benefits, having its statement is of greater help. You can get indulged in many ways, with which you can check your SS records.
Online registration
First of all, get registered with the SSA website and then sign up for ‘my Social Security.’ It is important to enter your name, birth date, SS number, phone number, and address there in a correct manner. There are some questions that you need to answer there according to your Equifax credit report so that they can verify your identity.
Afterward, you will obtain a security code by email or text so that the registration process can be completed. In any case, if your Equifax credit report is blocked, firstly, you should fix it first. Regarding the registration procedure, if you may get any trouble, then don’t panic at all, Social Security office is available to help you in any manner.
Paper mode
The second way to take charge of your SS statement is to send them a paper by mail. For that reason, you will have to fill out a form such as Form SSA-7004 with the right details and send it to the correct address mentioned on the form by mail. This way, you will be able to get the paper statement in your mail within 4 to 6 weeks.
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Inspecting your SS statement
Once you get the SS statement, then it would be better if you compare the mailed statement and the records you have with you. You can match it with current W-2 forms obtained from your employer. The estimations provided to you combine each and every earnings for a year.
Hence, if you had more than one employment option, then it should be a necessary task to add those up, avoiding mess completely.
Make sure to keep in mind that your earnings for the previous year may not be recorded still that depends on the time when you check it. And if you crossed the limit of the total amount of earnings you devote to SS, then it would not be seen on the statement. If there are errors in earnings, then immediately contact the SSA at helpline 1-800-772-1213 to get possible solutions.