Good News for Retirees: Social Security Payments Arrive Today for Birthdays Between the 1st and 10th
For retirees receiving Social Security, there is some good news: their first December check is almost here. Payments for the five programs that the Social Security Administration (SSA) oversees—survivors, disability, family, retirement and supplementary security income (SSI)—are disbursed on a staggered basis, with the first payments scheduled to be sent out shortly.
Well, that’s not totally accurate. There are two primary categories into which SSA payments fall:
- SSI benefits
- Retirement, family, disability and survivors: and these are also separated into two categories. Individuals who Began receiving benefits prior to May 1997
- Individuals who began receiving benefits after May 1997
The timeline for Social Security payments
Every month on the first day, SSI funds are disbursed. Naturally, this is assuming the date does not coincide with a weekend or national holiday, in which case the payment is made ahead of time to prevent delays. such as December. Sometimes there was a double payment since the payment was received a month earlier when the 1st fell on a Sunday. The problem is so widespread that the SSA issued a statement outlining:
In a 2022 blog post, the SSA stated, “We do this to avoid putting you at a financial disadvantage and make sure that you don’t have to wait beyond the first of the month to get your payment.” “You do not need to get in touch with us to report the second payment because it does not imply that you received a duplicate payment in the prior month.”
Continuing with the schedule, those who started claiming benefits before May 1997 receive their payments on the 3rd of every month, with the same conditions as SSI recipients for weekends and National holiday exemptions. The payment for this month was made on Tuesday of last week as planned.
The final group of payments is for people who began receiving benefits after May 1997. Since they comprise the majority of the payments that the SSA disburses, these payments have a more intricate system that separates them according to the beneficiaries’ dates of birth. The distribution schedule is rather simple to follow, and it sounds more complicated than it actually is.
Benefits will be paid on the second Wednesday of each month to recipients whose birthdays fall on the first through tenth of the month, on the third Wednesday to those born on the eleventh through the twentieth, and on the fourth Wednesday to those born on the twenty-first through the thirty-first. These benefits are still available despite the change in the National Holiday date.
Practically speaking, this means that on December 11, people whose birthdays fall between the first and tenth of any given month will receive their reward. The remaining funds will be disbursed in:
- December 18: Payment for recipients who were born after May 1997 and whose birthday falls between the eleventh and twentieth of any given month.
- December 24: Payment for beneficiaries born after May 1997 who were born between the 21st and the 31st of any given month. The 25th should be the date of the payment, however it is Christmas Day, a national holiday. This indicates that the payment is made ahead of schedule in order to protect beneficiaries from any potential delays.
There will be another SSI payment made in 2024, despite the fact that the year’s final payment was made in December and has already been disbursed. Due to January 1st being a national holiday, the January payment will be sent on December 31st. This implies that the 2.5% cost of living rise that will be applied to all benefits in the upcoming year will already be included in this payment.