Social Security Form 1724 - How Long Does It Take the SSA to Process and Remit Payment?

There should not be a delay if the form was filled out correctly and there are no other claimants other than the estate.  Government does not always work like what you think - like a POA is not any good when dealing with SSA or Medicare - Same with this case - the estate gets the fund AFTER other claimants and in this order.

A Social Security payment due a deceased beneficiary may be paid to a family member or a legal representative of the estate in the following order:

1. The surviving spouse who was either living in the same household as the deceased at the time of death or who, for the month of death, was entitled to a monthly benefit on the same record as the deceased;
2. Children who, for the month of death, were entitled to a monthly benefit on the same record as the deceased;
3. Parents who, for the month of death, were entitled to a monthly benefit on the same record as the deceased;
4. A surviving spouse not qualified under 1. above;
5. Children not qualified under 2. above;
6. Parents not qualified under 3. above; or
7. The legal representative of the deceased person's estate.

SSA.gov Form SSA-1724 Claim for Amounts Due in the Case of Deceased Beneficiary 

If there are others before the estate then they are probably scrutinizing the form because for this reason.

If the deceased was living abroad there is a different review - and it is slower.

It is almost opposite if the claim is for a Medicare premium refund I guess because that is actually a refund and does not flow to anybody else on the deceased record. It would go 1st to the estate.  

Did you get the $ 255 death benefit?  Or who got it? 

SSA.gov What to do when someone dies 

This is an exceptionally long period of time to wait.  DOGE - well, who knows - most likely they are being extremely cautious.  I do know that some of the workers have been pulled from other jobs to finish the Social Security Fairness Act claimants - they have finished the ones that they could do quickly by the system but from what I have read there are about 900,000 of them that are requiring manual computation.  

So I guess I am telling you that I don’t know cause it would go by the form and if it was completed as they want it - If you are trying to get the SS benefit so that you can disperse it as the executor - that is no what they want you to do - they want to disperse it to the rightful owner as the instruction say.