How to notify Social Security of a death and what comes next

Ruth's husband Walt died on a Tuesday in late March. On April 3rd, his Social Security payment showed up in their joint checking account like it had every month for eleven years, and Ruth used part of it to pay the florist. Six weeks later the bank took the whole amount back, and her account went briefly negative on a day she was also trying to cancel Walt's cell phone plan.

Nobody had told her that payment wasn't hers to spend. That's the kind of thing this guide is for. If someone close to you has died, here's how to notify Social Security of the death, what happens to their benefits, which payments have to be returned, and what the family may be able to claim. The rules below are for the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA). Individual cases can get complicated, so treat this as orientation and check the details with Social Security directly.

Who notifies Social Security of a death

In most cases the funeral home does it for you. When you make arrangements, the funeral director will ask for the person's Social Security number and report the death to SSA electronically along with the death certificate information.

So the first practical step is simple. Have the Social Security number ready when you meet with the funeral home, and ask them directly: "Will you be reporting this to Social Security?" Almost all of them will say yes.

If there's no funeral home involved (a direct cremation arranged through a different provider, for example, or a death abroad), a family member has to report it. Social Security asks families to call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or visit a local office. In most cases you can't report a death through the online account system.

Even when the funeral home handles it, I'd still call SSA yourself about two weeks later. There's a reason beyond double-checking. The report that a death happened and the application for any benefits the family is owed are two different things. The funeral home takes care of the first. Only you can start the second.

What to have ready when you call

Hold times can be long, so it helps to have everything in front of you before you dial:

The deceased person's full name, Social Security number, and date of death
Your own Social Security number, if you're a spouse or child who may qualify for benefits
Their bank name and account number, if benefits were paid by direct deposit
A certified death certificate, which you may need to show or mail later

You don't usually need the death certificate for the first call, but you will for most benefit applications. Our guide on how to get a death certificate explains how to order copies and how many to get.

What happens to their Social Security payments

Social Security benefits stop with the month of death, and the final payment usually has to be returned. This surprises almost everyone, and it's the part most likely to cause a headache.

Social Security pays benefits one month behind. The payment that arrives in April is for March. And no benefit is owed for the month someone dies, regardless of the day. So if a person dies on March 30th, the payment that lands in April isn't owed to them. It has to go back.

How you return it depends on how it was paid.

If it came by direct deposit, tell the bank about the death as soon as you can and ask them to return any Social Security deposits that arrive after it. SSA will also ask the bank to send the money back, which is exactly what happened to Ruth. The bank will pull it whether or not you've spent it.

If it came as a paper check, don't cash it. Return it to Social Security. Your local office can tell you where to send it.

This is a good reason not to close the person's bank account in the first week, even though it can feel like a relief to cross off. If the account closes before SSA claws back the payment, the reclaim can bounce around and take longer to sort out. Our guide to closing bank accounts after a death goes into the timing.

One more thing for couples who were both receiving benefits. If the surviving spouse was already getting a spouse's benefit on the other person's record, SSA will often switch them over to a survivor benefit automatically once the death is reported. Automatically isn't guaranteed, though, and the amount may change. That phone call is still worth making.

The $255 lump-sum death payment

Social Security pays a one-time benefit of $255 when someone who worked long enough to qualify dies. It isn't much, and the amount hasn't changed since 1954, but the family is entitled to it and it's easy to miss.

It goes to these people, in this order:

A surviving spouse who was living with the person at the time of death
A surviving spouse who lived elsewhere but was already getting benefits on the person's record, or became eligible for them after the death
A child who is eligible for benefits on the person's record

If none of those people exist, nobody receives it. It doesn't go to the estate, and an executor can't claim it on the estate's behalf.

You have two years from the date of death to apply. If the surviving spouse was already getting benefits on the deceased person's record, it's often paid without a separate application. Otherwise you'll apply by phone or at an office, usually alongside a survivor benefit application.

Nobody's funeral was ever paid for with $255. Still, Ruth told her daughter later that getting that small deposit felt like being acknowledged by someone, which I understood more than I expected to.

Social Security survivor benefits for spouses and children

Survivor benefits are monthly payments to certain family members of someone who worked and paid Social Security taxes. For a widow or widower with children at home, they can make a real difference in the years after a death.

The people who may qualify include:

A widow or widower age 60 or older, or 50 or older if they're disabled
A widow or widower at any age who is caring for the deceased person's child under 16 or a child with a disability
Unmarried children under 18, or up to 19 if they're still in high school, and adult children who became disabled before 22
Parents age 62 or older who depended on the person for at least half of their support
A former spouse, in some cases, if the marriage lasted at least 10 years

In general, a surviving spouse needs to have been married to the person for at least nine months for widow's or widower's benefits. There are exceptions, such as when the death was accidental or there's a child together.

The amount depends on the deceased person's earnings record and the age of the person claiming. A surviving spouse at full retirement age can typically receive 100% of what the deceased was getting or was entitled to. Claiming earlier means a smaller check for life. Children usually get up to 75% of the parent's benefit. There's a cap on how much one family can receive in total. Social Security's own survivors benefits page has calculators and more detail, and its plain-language booklet Survivors Benefits (Publication 05-10084) is worth printing for anyone deciding when to claim.

Survivor benefits and your own retirement benefit

If you're a widow or widower who also earned your own Social Security benefit, you can't collect both in full. You'll get whichever is higher. But you may be able to take one first and switch to the other later. Some people take a reduced survivor benefit at 60 and then switch to their own retirement benefit at 70 when it has grown as large as it's going to get. Others do the opposite.

This is a decision where a 20-minute conversation with someone who knows the rules can be worth thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Ask SSA to explain your options on the phone, and consider bringing your numbers to a fee-only financial planner before you sign anything. You don't have to decide in the first week.

Remarriage matters too. If you remarry before 60 (or 50 if disabled), you generally lose eligibility for survivor benefits on that earlier spouse's record. Remarrying after that age doesn't affect them.

Medicare, SSI, and the other notifications

Reporting a death to Social Security usually covers Medicare and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) as well, since SSA runs enrollment for both. You generally don't need to call Medicare separately. Any Medicare Advantage or Part D drug plan is run by a private insurer, though, and it's still worth calling that company directly to stop premiums and ask about refunds.

The Social Security report also feeds into government records used to flag the person's number as belonging to someone who has died. That helps prevent identity theft, but slowly. It's wise to contact the three credit bureaus yourself and ask them to place a deceased alert on the person's file. The FTC's IdentityTheft.gov has guidance if anything suspicious shows up.

Some notifications don't happen through SSA at all. Pension administrators, the VA, life insurers, and the person's former employer each need to be told separately. If you're the executor, those calls are part of a longer list that our guide to executor duties walks through in order. The IRS is separate too. Our guide on filing taxes for a deceased person explains what the final return involves. Note that Social Security benefits may show up on the SSA-1099 form the person receives in January.

For a wider checklist of who to contact in the first weeks, see what to do when someone dies.

Making this easier for the people who'll handle it for you

Reading this from the other side is useful, too. The person who calls Social Security after you die will need your Social Security number, the bank where your benefits are deposited, and, ideally, a sense of whether your spouse or kids might qualify for survivor benefits. Most people never write any of that down. Their families end up digging through a desk drawer for an old SSA-1099 to find out which bank the payments went to.

A single page covers it. Write down your Social Security number, where your benefits are deposited, any pensions, and the name of your Medicare plan, and keep it somewhere your spouse or executor can find. If you'd rather not keep that page in a drawer, When I Die Files can hold it for you along with the other things your family will need, and you can add a few words for them too.

Ruth eventually got through all of it. She called Social Security in May, sat on hold for 40 minutes with a crossword, and walked out of the local office three weeks later with a survivor benefit higher than the spouse's benefit she'd been getting. The florist got paid from the right account. If you're where she was in April, you're allowed to go one phone call at a time.