Social Security may still owe about $41 million to an estimated 4,785 disabled beneficiaries who had already filed for retirement benefits and were paid the wrong amount, the agency’s inspector general says. The estimate comes from a September 2026 audit of people on disability who turned 62 between 2018 and 2022. Social Security agreed to the audit’s recommendations.

In a memo to Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Assistant Inspector General for Audit Michelle L. Anderson split the 4,785 into two groups. About 2,533 people chose retirement benefits but kept getting the lower disability amount, and the audit puts what they are owed at about $14 million. Another 2,252 were hit by processing errors, worth about $26 million.

Why a disability check can be smaller than a retirement check

Disability benefits shrink when a person also collects workers’ compensation or another public disability payment. Social Security’s own publication says the two together cannot exceed 80 percent of the person’s average earnings before the disability, and anything above that is subtracted from the Social Security check. The reduction runs until the month the person reaches full retirement age.

Retirement benefits are not cut that way. The inspector general’s report says workers’ compensation and public disability payments do not reduce Social Security retirement benefits, so a person with a heavily reduced disability check can come out ahead on retirement. At full retirement age, Social Security also drops the months spent on disability from the early-filing reduction and raises the retirement amount.

The people at risk are those who get disability benefits, also receive workers’ compensation or a public disability pension, turned 62 between 2018 and 2022, and filed for early retirement. Anyone in that spot can compare the monthly amount on the retirement award letter with what actually lands in the bank, and ask Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 whether the higher retirement benefit is being paid. The audit’s $41 million covers only people who had already filed for retirement.

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What happened to people who had already filed

The audit set out to learn whether Social Security told disabled beneficiaries with a workers’ compensation or public disability offset that they might qualify for a higher retirement benefit. Auditors sampled 125 beneficiaries who turned 62 between January 2018 and December 2022. Social Security did not have to notify 53 of them, or 42 percent. It failed to notify 31, or 25 percent, who should have been told, and it notified 41, or 33 percent, as required.

The inspector general’s audit looked closely at 17 sampled beneficiaries who had elected retirement and were not paid correctly. Nine kept receiving the lower disability amount because employees applied the offset after the election. Agency policy requires the higher amount unless the person confirms in writing that the lower one is wanted, and the auditors found no such statements. Eight others were caught by errors in the retirement math, the first month of entitlement or the reduction factor at full retirement age.

One California beneficiary became entitled to $1,135 a month in early retirement benefits in June 2018. Social Security later awarded her disability benefits back to August 2018 and applied a public disability offset that cut her payments by $572 a month. The audit says she was underpaid about $4,400. The report could not determine why employees skipped the written-confirmation rule.

The $84 million that mostly cannot be paid, and the four fixes

The $41 million is the part Social Security may be able to pay, because those people had already filed. The audit also projects that the agency never notified 8,726 disabled beneficiaries who could have qualified for higher retirement benefits, and that another 3,659 were notified without a documented reason for not filing. Together, the report says, those beneficiaries could have been entitled to about $84 million more. The audit breaks that into about $56.8 million for the 8,726 never notified, about $9.3 million for 1,407 notified with no documented reason for not filing, and about $18.2 million for 2,252 notified with no documented decision.

Most of that money cannot be paid. Social Security can pay retirement benefits only from the month a person files forward, so every month of delay is a month lost for good. The report says the agency cannot act on many of those cases because of those limits and because many beneficiaries never responded to its notices. It adds that the Social Security Act and its regulations give relief to a claimant who lost benefits because the agency gave wrong information, and that the agency should make those determinations where they apply. The report does not say that relief reaches the people who were never notified.

The inspector general made four recommendations. Social Security should fix the records of the 17 sampled beneficiaries, build a process to find others who chose early retirement and were paid wrong, add controls such as periodic reviews so every eligible person is told, and clarify its alert policy, including how to follow up with people who do not answer. The report says the agency should pay the additional $14 million it estimates the first group is due.

The office asked Social Security for a corrective action plan within 60 days of the memo, which was dated September 25, 2026. Neither the agency nor the inspector general has said when the affected beneficiaries would hear from Social Security or how much each would receive.

Did a switch from disability to retirement leave a check short?

A deposit that is a little low can run for months before anyone flags it, and Social Security can generally pay retirement benefits only from the month of filing forward. For the 4,785 people in the audit, the gap showed up in the agency’s own files.

The Social Security Check Protection Kit is a 75-page guide with a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment and a part on late, short or wrong payments. It lays out what to gather and whom to call the day a deposit does not match the award letter.

Get the wrong-amount payment guide for the disability-to-retirement switch →

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.