COLUMN: Women’s History Month and Social Security – The Stanly News & Press

Every March, we celebrate Women’s History Month. It’s time to reflect on women’s achievements. Social Security has played a crucial role in women’s lives for more than 85 years.

Women have a longer average life expectancy than men, which means they live several years in retirement and have a greater chance of depleting other sources of income. It is important for women to plan early and wisely for retirement.

Our pension pages on www.ssa.gov/retirement provide detailed information on how life events can affect a woman’s Social Security pension benefits. These events may include marriage, widowhood, divorce, self-employment, public service, and other changes in life or career.

Your earnings history will determine your future benefits, so we encourage you to verify that the information we have is correct. You can create your personal mine Social Security account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount and review your earnings history. If you find an error in your earnings statement, it is important to have it corrected so that you get the benefits you earned when you retired. Our release, How to fix yours Social Security Earnings record on www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10081.pdf, gives you details on how to make a correction. You can also see yours Social Security Withdrawal on your mine Social Security take into account estimates of future benefits and other important planning information.

If you would like to know more about how we can help women plan for retirement, check out our online booklet, Social Security: What Every Woman Should Know. You can find it at www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10127.pdf. Please share this information with family and friends.