Why would Social Security issue a check to the estate of a parent who died almost 3 years ago?

My Mom received a SS check for my disabled brother, who passed over 10 years ago. Had something to do with an underpayment on their end. Checked it out it was legit, no mistake.

I'm glad someone confirms my conclusion that it can be a blessing - extra money - or a curse -a big mistake. Verification in person sounds best. I'm not real certain those taking phone calls are trained in the referral process. So they probably don't know who to refer the question to.

I'll spend an a.m. at SS and bring a book in case I have to wait a couple hours. Some bottled water too. If I can deposit the $160.00 that would be equal to $80.00/hr. for my time and it would solve the mystery. I can live with that. There is also a part of me that wants to be sure it's legitimate because ID theft happens to both live and deceased people.

Just a possibility:

When my father died SS withdrew money they had already deposited in his and my Mom's account, which is normal depending on when in they month a person dies. However, they withdrew too much. I caught it and after hours on the phone and a visit to the social security office, they refunded the money, about 3 months after they agreed with me about the error, and about 6 months after he died.

I would think it is possible that such an error happened for you Dad, it wasn't caught, and finally with audits, etc, the discrepancy came up and they finally got around to refunding.

If you do want help figuring it out I suggest going to the SS office in person. I had very bad luck over the phone - the people I talked to just knew the patter, and didn't know how to dig into the numbers. The person at the SS office spent probably about 30 minutes typing away on her computer to figure out what was going on and verifying that there was an error. She was very helpful.

Houseplant, not long ago I got one of those Federal checks for my late Dad, no explanation. Still have the Estate account opened due to a very long drawn out Probate. I am still mystified about the check. Oh well, deposited it into the Estate.

Call SS. Three years seems a long time.