disability and lump sum question

[lesserevil27]

I received a lump sum last year which included 2020-2017. Now when I put in the lump sum which is box 5 on my SSA 1099 (which includes the payments I was supposed to get for those years) how do I know that when I put in the lump sums for the other years, the software isn't counting those as separate payments?  It seems like it is adding the included payments as separate payments.

[JohnB5677]

A lump-sum payment is a one-time Social Security payment that you received for prior-year benefits. This period could cover months or years.

After you enter your SSA-1099 information, we'll ask if you received a lump-sum Social Security payment. If you did, answer Yes and follow the instructions. 

Your SSA-1099 lump-sum section breaks down the payments into what amount was received for each preceding year. 

You can only enter one year at a time. If you need to enter benefits received for a different tax year, select Add another lump-sum payment.

[lesserevil27]

thanks, to add to the question. Once I do that it says "if you received benefits in 2019 that were already reported on your 2019 tax return, there will be an amount in box 5 of your Form SSA-1099." problem is the benefits were all received in 2020 for the past 3 years my case was pending. So I never received a 2019 SSA so I don't know what to write in that. 

"Amount in box 5 of John's 2019 Form SSA-1099"

[DMarkM1]

Since you did not receive any benefits in 2019 you will enter zero in that box.  The same will be true for each of those past years that you did not receive any benefits.