Many seniors use Social Security’s website for a variety of purposes.

The recently revamped site can be extremely helpful. You can use it to check your status, apply for benefits, get important forms, and more. It also offers you the ability to get a benefit estimate.

However, as Forbes reports, recent estimates have been wrong. And not just slightly off — they’ve been so greatly skewed it’s a mystery as to what went wrong.

What Happened to the Estimator on the Social Security’s Website?

Some may say that given the 2024 Social Security COLA was due to be announced at the time when many estimates came through wrong, this could have something to do with the problem.

One theory is that the added percentage was calculated into the total, and this somehow led to lower estimates. It could also be the case that there’s a coding or calculation error that had gone undetected until recently. Some even speculate that a hack could’ve taken place.

As we know from the Social Security Administration’s well-publicized problems with customer service, this massive bureaucracy is known to have some technical and logistical problems. They’ve taken steps to fix them, but the problems persist.

So how can someone accurately estimate their benefits? If you don’t trust the website’s calculator, consider looking at other independent tools to help you. You may also want to contact a benefit expert who can tell you whether the estimate you’ve been given is the right one.

Have you used this estimator? Was your benefit amount correct or incorrect? Let us know your experience. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news like this.