Retirement Social Security

The Social Security Document You Need to Check Before 55 - Or Risk Losing $96,000

If you don't check this important record, you could lose out on Social Security income later on.

By Maurie Backman , Edited by Laura Hohenstein

Updated June 4, 2026

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No matter what your retirement plans entail, there's a good chance you'll need your Social Security benefits to help cover your costs. Granted, the more you save for retirement, the less reliant on those benefits you might be. But even if that's the case, it helps to have larger monthly checks coming your way for the peace of mind alone.

Your Social Security retirement benefits are calculated based on your personal earnings record. But if the Social Security Administration (SSA) has incorrect information on file, it could lead to smaller checks than what you're entitled to.

There's one crucial Social Security document you can check to ensure that the SSA's information is correct. And the sooner you take that step, the easier it might be to avoid potential issues with your monthly benefits.

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Why your earnings record matters

One misconception about Social Security is that it pays all retirees the same monthly benefit. Rather, the monthly benefit you're entitled to in retirement is based on your individual earnings history.

The SSA takes your 35 highest-paid years of income into account when calculating your monthly benefits. Earlier earnings are adjusted for inflation in that formula. The more money you make, up to a certain point, the larger your retirement benefits might be.

Of course, your filing age also plays a role in how much money Social Security pays you each month. But it's important to make sure you don't have underreported wages on file with the SSA before you gear up to claim benefits. If you're missing wages or have lower wages reported than what you actually earned, you could end up with smaller benefits.

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The key document you need to check

The SSA isn't immune to errors. Even if you worked a traditional salaried job your entire life, the agency may have incorrect wage information on record for you. That's why it's so important to review your earnings statements.

You can access those statements by creating a my Social Security account. From there, you can access each earnings statement by year and see if the information it contains is correct. You'll want to keep an eye out for $0 income years during periods when you did work, or misreported income during periods when you may have switched jobs or changed names due to marriage or divorce.

If you're self-employed, it's especially important to check your earnings record. That's because self-employed earnings depend on Schedule SE filings rather than employer W-2s, which may not be as consistent.

You could end up losing out on a huge chunk of money

Imagine you're self-employed and log into your Social Security account to check your earnings statements only to find that several years show $0 income even though you reported those wages on your taxes. If correcting that error adds $400 a month to your monthly benefits, and you end up collecting those benefits for 20 years, that's an extra $96,000 that could be coming your way.

Furthermore, the average Social Security benefit as of April 2026 was about $2,081 a month. Now, imagine being entitled to $400 more than that because you spotted a series of errors on your earnings record. Getting $2,481 instead could be a game-changer for your retirement.

Of course, this is just one example. The point, however, is that it's important to check your earnings record to make sure it's correct. The sooner you do, the sooner you can take steps to work with the SSA to fix mistakes. And the longer you wait, the harder it might be to gather the right documentation.

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How to correct your earnings record

If your Social Security wage history isn't correct, you'll need to fill out Form SSA-7008. You should also be prepared to provide supporting documentation for your claim, which may include:

A W-2 form for the year or years your income is incorrect
Tax returns
Pay stubs
Other wage records or documents showing you worked

The sooner you start digging up those documents, the easier they might be to find.

But if you wait too long, you may have a harder time, which is why it's best to review your earnings history before you turn 55. That gives you a good amount of time to work with the SSA to correct your record before you're eligible to start collecting retirement benefits.

Bottom line

Even if you're on track for retirement, Social Security might still play a big role in your finances. And remember, those benefits are eligible for annual inflation adjustments, so it's important to start off with the largest monthly checks you can.

Part of locking in more generous benefits involves waiting until full retirement age to sign up for Social Security or delaying your claim beyond that point for boosted checks. But having the right earnings data on file is also a big piece of that puzzle. So it pays to create that Social Security account as soon as you can and start reviewing the information the SSA has on file for you.

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