Many people in the United States may be receiving less Social Security money without knowing it. A new federal report revealed mistakes made by the Administration ration of Social Security (SSA) led to incorrect payments for thousands of beneficiaries who depend on that income to cover basic expenses such as rent, food and medicine.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation found that at least 8,618 widows and widowers received lesser benefits to which they were actually entitled day. The report estimates that average losses were approximately $5,800 dollars per person, adding to more than $50 million dollars in underpayments.

The problem arose because some SSA employees did not correctly apply a formula called Indexing Calculation for widower benefits (Widow(er)s Indexing Computation ( WINDEX), used to calculate survivor benefits. This formula adjusts the deceased worker's income and determines how much the surviving spouse should receive each month.

When the calculation was omitted or done incorrectly, many beneficiaries ended up with lower checks. The cases affected were personnel s whose husband or wife died before 62 years old and those files processed manually, where there is a greater possibility of administrative errors.

“As soon as we received the audit report from the Office of the Inspector General, SSA began the process to implement a direct reminder. "gone to local office employees about the correct procedures for calculating widowhood benefits," an SSA spokesperson told Newsweek.

The report also found another major problem: thousands of people may have lost even more money because they didn't receive clear information about when it was best to apply for their benefits.

According to auditors, around 5,367 widows and widowers could have received up to $114 million in additional dollars if they had been correctly advised about delaying rto retirement benefits while they collected survivor payments first. In many cases, applying for help too early permanently reduced their monthly income.

“While situations like this may affect only a few thousands of people, the concerns behind the problem reach millions of beneficiaries,” explained Alex Beene, education instructor financial tion from the University of Tennessee at Martin. “With the cost of living affecting millions of older adults, everyone wants to make sure that the money they receive each month is correct.”

Specialists warn that this type of errors especially affects older adults with limited incomes. For many families, even a few dollars less each month can represent difficulty paying for services, food,or medicines.

“Social Insurance should help when a husband or wife dies, allowing the survivor to receive a higher benefit. But for years this process has been manual and in too many cases it's done poorly,” afi wrote Kevin Thompson, CEO of 9i Capital Group and host of the 9innings podcast. “It's not a minor mistake;

The SSA reported that it will review the cases identified in the audit and take corrective actions when necessary. It is analyzing possible changes to its systems to reduce future errors and improve the guidance offered to beneficiaries.

People who believe they have been affected can request a review of their benefits directly with the SSA. Experts recommend ask specifically check whether the WINDEX calculation was applied correctly and verify all available benefit-claiming options.

It is also important to have documents such as:

If the problem is not resolved, beneficiaries can request formal reconsideration or seek support from local Social Insurance offices and community representatives.

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