I was receiving retirement benefits when I entered prison or jail. What happens to them while I’m incarcerated?

If you were convicted and incarcerated for 30 or more days in a row, your Social Security benefits got suspended on the 31st day.[1667] You can’t get these benefits while incarcerated, but you’ll stay enrolled in the program. This means if your spouse or children have been getting benefits based on your Social Security eligibility, they’ll keep getting them while you’re incarcerated (even if your benefits were suspended), so long as they’re eligible.[1668] This also means that once you have official documents proving your release date, you can apply to restart your retirement benefits (see PG. 481).[1669]

Please note that BEFORE you are actually convicted—even if you are incarcerated while awaiting trial—you will continue to receive Social Security benefits until you are convicted AND incarcerated for 30 days or more in a row.[1670]

IMPORTANT EXCEPTIONSExceptions for People Incarcerated Before April 1, 2000—
What happened to your Social Security Benefits during incarceration:

    If you were incarcerated before February 1, 1995: Your benefits get suspended after your 31st day of incarceration only if you were convicted of a felony. If you were incarcerated between February 1, 1995 and March 31, 2000: You’re not entitled to benefits for any month in which you were incarcerated following conviction for a crime that can be given a one-year or longer sentence by law (regardless of the actual sentence the court imposed). If you were incarcerated before April 1, 2000: Your benefits don’t get suspended if you’re confined by court order because you’re found “not guilty” due to insanity, “guilty” but insane, or “incompetent to stand trial.”[1671]
  1. 1667

    So, for example, if you were convicted and went to prison or jail on March 3, your benefits would stop on April 2. Arrested? What Happens to Your Benefits?, Bazelon Center, http://www.kitsaPGov.com/pubdef/Forms/LinkClick.Benefits.pdf.

  2. 1668

    20 C.F.R. § 404.468(a); Benefits After Incarceration: What You Need to Know, Soc. Sec. Admin., http://www.ssa.gov/reentry/; Your Right to Representation to the Community (2009), Bazelon Center, http://www.bazelon.org/News-Publications/Publications/List/1/CategoryID/7/Level/a/ProductID/17.aspx?SortField
    =ProductNumber%2CProductNumber
    .

  3. 1669

    What Prisoners Need to Know, Soc. Sec. Admin., http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10133.pdf.

  4. 1670

    What Prisoners Need to Know, Bazelon Center, http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10133.pdf. See also Arrested? What Happens to Your Benefits?, Bazelon Center, http://www.kitsaPGov.com/pubdef/Forms/LinkClick.Benefits.pdf.

  5. 1671

    42 U.S.C. § 402(x)(1)(A)(i); Your Right to Representation to the Community (2009), Bazelon Center, http://www.bazelon.org/News-Publications/Publications/List/1/CategoryID/7/Level/a/ProductID/17.aspx?SortField
    =ProductNumber%2CProductNumber
    .