How to receive your Social Security statements

Your Social Security Statement provides important information about your Social Security record and future benefits. For several years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) mailed these statements every five years to people starting at age 25, but due to budgetary concerns, the SSA has stopped mailing Social Security Statements to individuals under age 60.

Workers age 60 and over who aren’t receiving Social Security benefits will still receive paper statements in the mail, unless they opt to sign up for online statements instead. If you’re age 60 or older, you should receive your statement every year, about three months before your birthday. The SSA will mail statements upon request to individuals under age 60.

However, the quickest way to get a copy of your Social Security Statement is to sign up for a my Social Security account at the SSA website, ssa.gov. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll have immediate access to your statement, which you can view, download, or print. Statement information generally includes a projection of your retirement benefits at age 62, at full retirement age (66 to 67), and at age 70; projections of disability and survivor benefits; a detailed record of your earnings; and other information about the Social Security program.

The SSA has recently begun using a two-step identification method to help protect my Social Security accounts from unauthorized use and potential identity fraud. If you’ve never registered for an online account or haven’t attempted to log in to yours since this change, you will be prompted to add either your cell phone or email address as a second identification method. Every time you enter your account username and password, you will then be prompted to request a unique security code via the identification method you’ve chosen, and you need to enter that code to complete the log-in process.