Checking your SSA earnings record

Social Security bases your future benefits on its record of your earnings. Retirement benefits are worked out from your highest 35 years of earnings, so a year that's missing or too low can reduce what you're paid. If a year is wrong, you can ask Social Security to correct it.

What you need

• A my Social Security account, or the paper Statement if you're 60 or older and don't have an account
• Your W-2 forms, or your tax returns if you were self-employed
• Form SSA-7008 if you find a year that's wrong

Steps

1. 1

   Open your Statement

   Sign in to your my Social Security account, or create one, and open your Statement. Workers 60 and older without an account get a paper Statement in the mail three months before their birthday.

   10 min

2. 2

   Find the earnings record

   The Statement lists the earnings taxed for Social Security and for Medicare each year. Earlier years are combined on the summary, so open the full earnings record online to see each year on its own.

   5 min

3. 3

   Line each year up against your papers

   Compare each year with the Social Security wages on that year's W-2, or with the self-employment income on your tax return. Earnings above the yearly taxable limit don't appear in the Social Security column, so a high-earning year can look short when it isn't. The most recent year may read "Not yet recorded."

   30 min

4. 4

   Note what's wrong

   For each wrong year, write down the employer's name, address and phone number, the wages you were paid, and the document that shows it.

   5 min

5. 5

   Ask for a correction

   Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213, or fill out form SSA-7008 and send or bring it to your local Social Security office. The form asks for the years you believe are wrong and the correct amounts, with copies of your W-2 or W-2c, or of your tax return for self-employment income.

   30 min

If you don't have the W-2

The form still accepts a correction without one, but it asks you to explain why you can't send evidence. For self-employment income, the form asks whether you've requested copies of your return from the IRS, and to do so if the return was filed less than 6 years ago. An IRS wage and income transcript shows the W-2s and 1099s that were filed with the IRS for you. Getting an IRS tax transcript covers how to order it.

Reading the rest of the Statement

The Statement also shows estimates of your retirement benefit at different starting ages, and of the disability and survivors benefits your family could get. Those estimates are based on your earnings to date and assume you keep earning about what you earn now. You need at least 10 years of work, or 40 credits, to qualify for retirement benefits.