Social Security payments will be hitting bank accounts this week for millions of Americans.
This week, those who have a birthday between the 1st and 10th of any given month in the year will be sent their payment on December 11. It is the third payment to be issued for this month, with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments having been made at the end of November, and retirement benefits for those who have been collecting since May 1997 having gone out on December 3. More payments are scheduled for later this month, for those with birthdays in the rest of any given month, on December 18 and 24.
There will also be a slight change to the schedule for SSI payments for January. While these are usually paid on the 1st of the corresponding month, due to New Year’s Day being a federal holiday, the payment will arrive in your bank account a day earlier on December 31.
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“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,” the SSA said in a 2022 blog post. “It does not mean that you are receiving a duplicate payment in the previous month, so you do not need to contact us to report the second payment.”
If you have not received your monthly payment on the expected date, the SSA recommends waiting three working days before contacting the agency. Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are not considered working days.
In 2024, individuals who retire at age 70 can receive the maximum monthly benefit of $4,873. If you decide to retire and begin receiving benefits at the earliest age of 62, the highest amount available would be $2,710. As of January 2024, the average monthly retirement benefit for recipients stood at $1,907.
But, with the New Year approaching, Social Security recipients can look forward to a modest increase in their payments due to the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2025 going into effect.
The 2.5 percent COLA, which was announced in October, will begin with benefits payable to nearly 68 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2025. Increased payments to nearly 7.5 million SSI recipients will begin on December 31.
The COLA, more often than not, increases benefits in line with inflation every year. However, 2025 payments are subject to a smaller increase than previous years as inflation has cooled off since the coronavirus pandemic.
The COLA increase for 2023 was the largest on record, with seniors having their benefits boosted by 8.7 percent following a period of high inflation driven by the coronavirus pandemic, which peaked at 9.2 percent in 2022.
