New Report Claims Widows and Widowers Were Cheated Out of More Than $50 Million in Benefits by the Social Security Administration
If you've ever looked at your Social Security benefits and thought that they didn't seem like enough money, you could've been right. At least that's what a new report from the Office of the Inspector General says, after the agency says it uncovered errors by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
It sounds like those little mistakes had big consequences, too. The report says that nearly 9,000 widows and widowers were shortchanged by the SSA to the tune of $50.4 million. Keep reading to find out what they say led to the mistake, and what other expensive errors the report uncovered.
An Investigation Discovered Massive Payment Mistakes at the SSA
The findings were published in a March 2026 audit report by the Office of the Inspector General. According to the findings, the mistakes were made by staff members who didn't correctly calculate the benefits. It sounds like the error came down to failing to use the Widow(er)s Indexing Computation (WINDEX), which is used when calculating the benefits for a bereaved spouse.
"SSA employees did not apply the WINDEX PIA appropriately when they manually processed cases for 11 widow(er) beneficiaries and, as a result, did not pay the appropriate monthly benefits," the report said, noting that the PIA (Primary Insurance Amount) is the basis that is used for the calculations that determine beneficiary payments.
However, when it comes to why this happened, the investigation came up empty-handed. "We could not determine why SSA employees did not appropriately apply the WINDEX PIA for these widow(er) beneficiaries," the report continued. "Based on our random sample, we estimate SSA underpaid 8,618 widow(er)s approximately $50.4 million."
Related: The Secret To Boosting Your Social Security Check by 30 Percent
The Report Uncovered Additional Errors
As if that news wasn't bad enough, the report also found that widows and widowers may have lost out on around $114 million in additional benefits after they were given bad advice by SSA staffers. This mistake, which included failing to tell people not to begin collecting benefits too early, likely cost the average beneficiary $21,200.
"We estimate 5,367 widow(er)s would have been eligible for $113.8 million in additional benefits had they chosen to delay their retirement claims," the report continued.
Related: Why Your Social Security Benefits Might Be Taxed for the First Time Ever
What Should You Do If You Were Shortchanged
There may be good news for those beneficiaries who were underpaid, though. The SSA told MarketWatch that it was working internally to address the mistakes and that the agency plans to take corrective action.
Hopefully, that means that those underpaid folks will get reimbursed for the mistakes that led to lower payouts, allowing them to recoup any money that they may have lost in the process of filing for their benefits. Personally, I hope it also means that they plan to address the training or short staffing issues that caused these errors in the first place, so they don't impact future applicants as well.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 1:23 PM.