I'm always amazed that the most insignificant of all Social Security benefits seems so significant to so many people. I am talking about the crummy little one-time $255 death benefit. I'm always getting emails from readers asking me about it. Or, to be more precise, they are usually asking me why the benefit wasn't paid on behalf of a deceased family member.

Before I get into some of those emails, I've got to give a little background about this insignificant but popular Social Security benefit. You will learn that it definitely did not start to be what it's become known as — the "burial benefit."

As part of the thinking that went into the original Social Security Act passed in 1935, Congress realized that many of the new Social Security taxpayers would die before they ever had a chance to collect benefits. Or they would die without having earned enough "quarters of coverage" to be insured for survivor benefits for any dependents. So they decided to compensate the families of a loved one who died in the early years of the program with some form of reimbursement for the Social Security taxes that the deceased had paid into the system. They set up a one-time benefit they called the "lump-sum death payment." And it was originally intended to reimburse the family with an amount equal to 3.5% of the money the deceased had paid into the system.

It was supposed to be a temporary benefit, because Congress knew that as time passed, most workers would be paying a sufficient amount of money into Social Security that they would be insured for survivor benefits. In other words, when a taxpayer died, the widow or widower (and any minor children) would get monthly benefits — so this lump-sum payout would no longer be needed.

But as often happens with government programs, once you start paying a benefit, it's hard to take it away. Over the years, there have been any number of proposals to eliminate the lump-sum death payment. But as miserly as the benefit is, it's a popular feature of the Social Security program. And politicians soon learned that to tamper with it meant an automatic loss in the next election. So the "temporary benefit" never went away.

But occasionally, Congress has made some relatively minor adjustments to the original law. In 1954, they capped the benefit at $255 — and it's remained at that level ever since. And in 1983, when politicians were looking for ways to save money in the Social Security system, they restricted the payment of the one-time death payment to a "spouse who was living with the deceased at the time of death."

So today, we essentially have a meaningless one-time miserly Social Security payment that comes with restrictions. And as you can see from my little history lesson, it was never meant to be associated with funeral or burial costs. But it has kind of morphed into that.

Perhaps 70 years ago, $255 paid the cost of a funeral. Of course today, it barely covers the price of the flowers. If I were the king of the Social Security world, I would do one of two things. Either I would raise the death benefit to something meaningful, like, say, $2,500. Or I would simply eliminate it.

But I'm a columnist, not a king. So all I can do is explain the law and answer any questions people might have about it. Here are a few of them.

Q: My wife recently died. She was a homemaker all of her life, so she was getting spousal benefits on my record. Everything went fine with stopping her Social Security checks. But I have two questions. When will I get the $255 death benefit? And will my benefit go up to give me credit for the spousal share that was being deducted from my checks?

A: I'm sorry, but the $255 death benefit is only paid on the account of someone who had worked and paid Social Security taxes. It sounds like your wife never did that because she was just receiving spousal benefits, not her own Social Security. And the money paid to a spouse is just an "add-on" benefit. In other words, nothing was taken out of your retirement check to pay her. So your retirement benefit rate will remain the same.

Q: My husband died five years ago when I was in my early 50s. I don't ever remember getting the death benefit. Was it automatic?

A: No, it's not automatic. You must apply for the death benefit. I'm not sure, but it might be too late to file for it now. To find out, call Social Security at 800-772-1213. Also, once you are 60 years old, you would be potentially eligible for monthly widow's benefits. You can check SSA's website, www.socialsecurity.gov, to learn all the eligibility rules.

Q: My father died on July 25. My parents were divorced, although they were still close friends. My mother applied for and started getting divorced widow's benefits on his record. But I have two questions. Why did she have to return his July check? And why didn't she get the $255 death benefit?

A: She had to return the July check because Social Security benefits are not prorated. Since your father didn't live the entire month of July, the check for that month had to be returned. But there is an upside to that lack of proration. Your mother started getting divorced widow's benefits for the whole month of July, even though she was a widow for only six days in that month.

As far as the death benefit goes, as I pointed out earlier, the law says it can only be paid to a widow who was living with the deceased at the time of death. I assume your divorced parents weren't living together. So that's why the $255 can't be paid to her.

If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has two books with all the answers. One is called "Social Security — Simple and Smart: 10 Easy-to-Understand Fact Sheets That Will Answer All Your Questions About Social Security." The other is "Social Security: 100 Myths and 100 Facts." You can find the books at Amazon.com or other book outlets. Or you can send him an email at [email protected]. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Jametlene Reskp at Unsplash