The Social Security Administration provides lump-sum death benefits of $255 to over 800,000 survivors each year. These survivors include certain spouses and children who were receiving benefits on the worker’s record or became eligible on the worker’s record after his or her death.
The lump-sum death benefits paid each year are expected to increase from $200 million in 2015 to $217 million in 2024. SSA’s administrative costs for these benefits are roughly $10 million per year.
Source: https://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/audit/full/pdf/A-08-16-50108.pdf
More information about the lump sum death benefit is available at https://www.ssa.gov/planners/survivors/ifyou7.html.
Excerpted from the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives newsletter.
