Two rounds of Social Security payments for retired and disabled Americans will be made this week.
All Social Security benefits are paid directly into bank accounts by the Social Security Administration (SSA), with tens of millions of recipients receiving cash monthly.
On Tuesday, October 1, the first round of payments will be made to those who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI provides payments to adults and children with a disability or blindness, as well as adults aged 65 and older whose retirement income may fall short of providing enough money to get by.
The second round of payments will be made on Thursday, October 3, for Social Security beneficiaries who have been claiming since before May 1997.
A file photo of dollar bills and a Social Security card. Payments are made monthly to all recipients.
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The SSA recommends waiting three working days before contacting them if your payment hasn’t arrived on its due date.
In January 2024, the average monthly retirement benefit for Social Security claimants was $1,907. The calculation for retirement benefits takes into account an individual’s 35 highest-earning years in their career and the age at which a person began claiming, and is also adjusted for inflation.
On its website, the SSA explains: “The maximum benefit depends on the age you retire. For example, if you retire at full retirement age in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $3,822. However, if you retire at age 62 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $2,710. If you retire at age 70 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $4,873.”
Social Security recipients can also soon expect an announcement regarding the annual boost to benefits known as the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
Independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson has forecasted the COLA will be 2.5 percent.
“The 2025 COLA will be the lowest received by Social Security beneficiaries since 2021, at the same time inflated prices persist on key essentials such as housing, meats, auto insurance, any type of service and repairs,” Johnson said in a statement to Newsweek. “Despite it being the lowest COLA since 2021, a 2.5 percent COLA would be considered about average.”
“I think most people will be disappointed by the COLA increase,” Krisstin Petersmarck, the founder and CEO of New Horizon Retirement Solutions, told Newsweek. “Inflation is going down, but not in all the right places like the grocery stores.
“So, people, like those on fixed income like seniors collecting Social Security, having a small COLA increase may not seem like enough. But, based on the history of averages, about 50 percent of the COLA increases have been lower than inflation for that year. So, this is not necessarily a negative sign.”
The official COLA announcement will be made on October 10.
