And the Social Security death benefit is $255!!!
They do the same thing with birthdays. You only get paid for the first full month.
Morticians spread the word.
My father was born on February 29. A restaurant that was part of a large chain near where he lived during his later years had a standing “free lunch on your birthday” promotion. The manage was always quite nice about it, but he said he just couldn’t give my dad the free lunch on February 28 because it wasn’t his birthday and he still couldn’t do it the next day because his birthday had passed. The manager claimed that corporate headquarters needed a photo copy of a valid ID together with the cash registrar receipt showing the date of the free lunch before he could provide it.
Since my dad was a regular at the restaurant, the manager always was very generous with various perks, but my dad only got a free lunch every four years.
Wow. You’d think if it was a large chain, they’d have a “Feb. 29th” policy. I can understand a regional place claiming it had never come up, but it sounds like you’re talking about a national chain.
Baskin-Robbins used to give kids a free cone for their birthday, and my friend who was born on Feb. 29th got one the same as the rest of us. They stopped doing that promotion at some point, though. I never understood why. It seemed like a winner. My parents always bought me an ice cream cone when we went for my brother’s free one, and the other way around. Sometimes a whole passel of cousins would go, and they’d sell six cones because they gave away one. Sometimes more if any of the adults got one.
Anyway, Social Security-- I think we had to return my mother’s last check even though she lived into the month it was deposited; she just didn’t live through the month.
Gawd, there’s so much to do when a person dies. You have to return their library books, not a small consideration with my father. You have to find places for so much stuff.
At least I’m in The Dead Parents Society now. Never worrying about it again, and I’ll never have to care for really elderly parents. Really not going to miss that last one after watching (and helping as much as I could) my mother care for her mother, who was nearly 99 when she died. And I get to remember my parents being fairly together until the end.
You can’t die without giving your SSN first. So the hospital knew.
Yes.
If you cannot determine how, please contact local Soc Sec field office. Or inform bank.
Source: It’s my job (one of them, anyway).
This. The funeral home director got all the necessary information for the death certificate from us, passed it on to the appropriate authorities, and notified SSA (or maybe that was automatic once the death certificate was entered into the system).