Lowering your IRMAA: Form SSA-44 and the 8 life-changing events

The 8 events SSA accepts

The list is exclusive (POMS HI 01120.005 C). It applies to you or your spouse for the work, property, pension and settlement events.

1. Marriage. You entered into a legal marriage.
2. Divorce/Annulment. Your legal marriage ended, and you will not file a joint return with your spouse for the year.
3. Death of Your Spouse. Your spouse died.
4. Work Stoppage. You or your spouse stopped working.
5. Work Reduction. You or your spouse reduced the hours you work.
6. Loss of Income-Producing Property. You or your spouse lost income-producing property not at your direction: disaster, destruction of livestock or crops, arson, or investment fraud or theft. A voluntary sale does not count.
7. Loss of Pension Income. You or your spouse experienced a scheduled cessation, termination, or reorganization of an employer’s pension plan.
8. Employer Settlement Payment. You or your spouse received a settlement from an employer or former employer because of the employer’s closure, bankruptcy, or reorganization.

What does not qualify

• Ordinary loss of dividend income
• Higher medical expenses
• Higher living expenses
• Loss of child support
• Loss of alimony
• Voluntary sale of income-producing property
• One-time income in the year SSA used: capital gains from selling property, lottery or casino winnings, an IRA (Roth) conversion, cashing bonds

The two conditions SSA checks

1. The event came first. It must have happened in the tax year you ask SSA to use, or earlier. It can be years old: SSA only checks that it occurred before the income drop.
2. The drop is “significant”. In SSA’s definition, that means it lowers or removes your IRMAA. A lower income that stays in the same tier is not enough. A change of filing status can be enough on its own, for example going from the joint table to the individual one.

SSA accepts your statement, under penalty of perjury, that the event caused the reduction; it does not examine which kinds of income went down.

Which tax year goes in Step 2

The instructions of the 12-2025 edition give this example: SSA used your 2024 return for 2026. If your income dropped in 2025 because of an event in 2025 or before, and 2026 will be no lower, write 2025. If 2026 will be lower still (or the drop only starts in 2026), write your 2026 estimate. Step 3 then lets you give an even lower estimate for the next year; otherwise SSA reuses the Step 2 figure.

Evidence

Original documents or certified copies; SSA returns them. For income: your signed federal return for the Step 2 year or an IRS transcript, or, for an estimate, the return once filed. Event evidence is listed in the worksheet. SSA waits 30 days for missing evidence (90 on request) before dismissing the request.

If you disagree with the decision itself: reconsideration

• Deadline: 60 days from receiving the IRMAA notice. SSA presumes you received it 5 days after the date printed on it, so count 65 days from that date. Late requests are accepted only with good cause.
• How: online on ssa.gov (fastest, according to SSA), with Form SSA-561-U2, or at a local office.
• Next levels: hearing before an HHS administrative law judge (Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals), Medicare Appeals Council, then federal court.
• Wrong IRS figure? Correct it with the IRS first (1-800-829-1040), then bring SSA the IRS letter. An amended return also counts, with the IRS acknowledgment.
• Charged Part D IRMAA without Part D? CMS supplies that information: call 1-800-MEDICARE.