Kokua Line: Why is retroactive Social Security payment so low?

Question: In your column Sunday (808ne.ws/42aGN4R) about SSA retroactive payments, it is correct that payments were supposed to be to January 2024, but a few of us former federal workers have received retroactive payments only back to July 2024. I applied for spousal benefits that were denied to me since 2017, and an agent on the phone told me the same thing, that I would get retroactive benefits only back to July 2024. I went to the SSA Kapolei office, and the agent said they saw that annotatio