Medicare premiums Work Federal income taxes Some kinds of debt Benefit overpayment Family maximum Workers’ compensation What about government pensions?

2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles , Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare , Social Security Administration How Work Affects Your Benefits, Social Security Administration Social Security Income , Internal Revenue Service “Which States Tax Social Security Benefits?” AARP.org "Can my Social Security benefits be garnished or levied?" Frequently Asked Questions, Social Security Administration Overpayments , Social Security Administration Repay Overpaid Benefits , Social Security Administration Resolve an Overpayment , Social Security Administration Formula for Family Maximum Benefit , Social Security Administration How Workers’ Compensation and Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits , Social Security Administration Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) Update , Social Security Administration

7 Things That Can Lower Your Monthly Social Security Payments

Medicare premiums, earnings from work and other factors can reduce what you collect

6-minute read

Part of Series: Retirement Benefits

Andy Markowitz,

AARP

Expert reviewed by

Jammie Lyell

Published October 12, 2026

Andy Markowitz is an AARP senior writer and editor covering Social Security and retirement. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

Jammie Lyell is the Social Security program manager for AARP's office of community, state and national affairs. He formerly worked at the Social Security Administration as a legal administrative specialist and technical expert.

Key takeaways

Your monthly payment may be less than the benefit amount calculated by Social Security due to deductions or withholding for work, health care, taxes and more.
One common issue is Medicare — for most enrollees, Part B premiums are deducted from Social Security payments.
Workers’ compensation and some types of debt can trigger deductions, but government pensions no longer affect Social Security payments.

In Social Security parlance, “benefit” and “payment” are often used interchangeably, but they do not mean precisely the same thing.

Medicare premiums
Work
Federal income taxes
Some kinds of debt
Benefit overpayment
Family maximum
Workers’ compensation
What about government pensions?

Your benefit is the amount the Social Security Administration (SSA) calculates you are eligible to receive each month, based on your earnings history, claiming age and the type of benefit you get. Your payment is the amount of money that lands in your bank account each month.

There can be a considerable difference between the two, based on such factors as employment or Medicare status. Here are seven things that could cause dollars to be deducted from your benefit.

Medicare premiums

If you are collecting Social Security and enrolled in Medicare, premiums for Part B — the part of Medicare that covers doctor visits and other outpatient treatment — are automatically deducted from your monthly benefit payment.

More Ways to Benefit

View All

Related Benefit 1
Related Benefit 2
Related Benefit 3
Related Benefit 4
Related Benefit 5

Most people pay the “standard” Part B premium ($202.90 in 2026). Beneficiaries with higher incomes (over $109,000 a year for an individual taxpayer in 2026 and $218,000 for a couple filing jointly) are charged up to several hundred dollars a month more for Part B.

People who pay the standard rate are covered by “hold harmless,” a provision of Social Security law that prevents a beneficiary’s monthly payment from going down year to year due to an increase in Part B premiums. The provision does not apply to those paying the higher premium rates or to anyone in their first year of Medicare coverage.

Those who have Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) or Part D (prescription drug) plans may choose to pay those premiums directly out of their Social Security. Talk to your plan provider about billing options.

Work

If you claim Social Security before your full retirement age, or FRA (67 for people born in 1960 or later), and continue to work, you are subject to the SSA’s “earnings test.” In the years before you reach your FRA, $1 is temporarily withheld from your benefit payment for every $2 you earn above an annually set cap.

In 2026, that cap is $24,480. Suppose you earn $30,000 from a part-time job. The difference between that and the earnings limit is $5,520, so $2,760 — half that amount — would be deducted from your benefits for the year.

In the calendar year you reach FRA, the limit goes up — it’s $65,160 in 2026 — and less is withheld ($1 for every $3 in earnings above the cap).

When you reach full retirement age, the earnings test ends and there is no withholding, no matter how much you earn. In addition, the SSA recalculates your benefit to a higher amount so that over time, you are, in effect, repaid for the pre-FRA withholding.

Federal income taxes

Beneficiaries with incomes above $25,000 for a single taxpayer and $32,000 for a couple filing jointly may be liable for federal taxes on up to 85 percent of their Social Security income. As with work income, you can have federal taxes withheld from your monthly benefit payment so you don’t have to pay it all at tax time.

You can specify if you want federal tax withholding and at what rate (7 percent, 10 percent, 12 percent or 22 percent) in your application for benefits or by filling out IRS Form W-4V and submitting it by mail or in person to your local Social Security office.

Several states tax Social Security income, but there is no mechanism for withholding state tax payments from your monthly benefits.

Some kinds of debt

Social Security benefits cannot be garnished to pay commercial debt (such as your car loan or credit card bills) or seized in a bankruptcy proceeding. However, the federal government can withhold benefits for certain types of government-managed debt, including:

Back taxes. Up to 15 percent of your benefit can be withheld if you’re in arrears to the IRS.
Nontax debt to federal agencies, such as housing or small-business loans that are in default. These deductions are also capped at 15 percent. (Student loan debt is also in this category, but garnishment for student loan defaults has been suspended since March 2020.)
Court-ordered payments such as alimony, child support or restitution to crime victims. The terms of garnishment vary by state.

Benefit overpayment

If Social Security determines that you received more than you were entitled to get in previous benefit payments, it may withhold a portion of your monthly benefit going forward to recoup the overpayment.

This most often occurs with Supplemental Security Income (SSI), an SSA-managed benefit for people with very low income and limited assets who are 65 or older, blind or have a disability. Eligibility and benefit amounts for SSI are subject to a complex set of rules and reporting requirements involving beneficiaries’ finances and living situations.

The withholding is capped at 50 percent of your monthly payment if you are drawing retirement benefits, survivor benefits, family benefits or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and 10 percent if you are receiving SSI. The SSA publishes an overpayments fact sheet that details how benefits are withheld in such cases, as well as other repayment options and beneficiaries’ rights to appeal or seek a waiver of the debt.

Family maximum

Spousal and survivor benefits can be reduced by the family maximum benefit, a cap on how much a family can collectively receive from Social Security based on one member’s earnings record.

Let’s say you’re getting retirement benefits, and your spouse and kids qualify for benefits on your record. Social Security uses a formula to calculate the family maximum, which generally will be 150 to 180 percent of your basic benefit — the amount you’re entitled to receive if you file at full retirement age.

If all the family’s benefits added together exceed that figure, your spouse’s and kids’ payments will be reduced in equal measure to meet the cap. Your own retirement benefit won’t be touched — the family maximum affects only auxiliary benefits paid on the primary earner’s record.

Workers’ compensation

If you are receiving both SSDI and workers’ compensation, Social Security may apply an “offset” that can reduce your disability benefit.

Under federal rules, workers’ comp and SSDI payments combined can’t amount to more than 80 percent of what Social Security determines to have been your average earnings before you became disabled. If they do, one or the other benefit will be reduced to get under the cap.

In most states, that will be your SSDI benefit, although some states have their own offset policies and reduce workers’ comp payments instead.

The same offset rules may apply if you are receiving another form of public disability benefit from a federal, state or local government. Veteran’s disability benefits, however, do not affect SSDI payments.

What about government pensions?

Until recently, this list included eight items, but in December 2024, Congress repealed two Social Security rules — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduced monthly benefit payments for millions of people who collect pensions from public-sector jobs.

The WEP affected people with a so-called noncovered pension from a job in which they did not pay Social Security taxes (as is the case with many state and local government agencies) but also qualify for Social Security retirement benefits based on other employment in which they did pay into the system. The GPO applied to people who received Social Security spousal or survivor benefits as well as a noncovered pension.

The two rules affected about 2.8 million people, according to the Congressional Research Service. The repeal law, the Social Security Fairness Act, was retroactive to the start of 2024, so those beneficiaries received refunds for that year’s withholding and higher monthly payments going forward. The SSA’s Social Security Fairness Act page has more information on the change.

The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

AARP Membership

Join AARP for only $15 per year with automatic renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of benefits, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.

Join