Millions of beneficiaries across the U.S. will be getting their Social Security check this week.
With an estimated 70 million people receiving benefits, payments administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) are distributed in waves throughout the month. When a beneficiary is paid depends on a recipient’s date of birth and what type of benefit they collect. As well as giving out checks for retired Americans and their families, the SSA also pays disability benefits.
The second round of retirement deposits will be made on Wednesday, September 11, to beneficiaries with birthdays that fall between the 1st and 10th of any given month in the year that started claiming after May 1997.
The first round of September payments this month actually went out in August, as the usual September 1 payment date fell on a weekend. Benefits to those collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) without retirement checks are always paid first.
If a claimant receives both retirement checks and SSI, their retirement benefit should have been paid on September 3. Later this month, those who have a birthday between the 11th and 20th of any month receive their payment on September 18, followed by those born between the 21st and 31st, who will be paid on September 25.
A person holds U.S. dollar bills next to a purse overflowing with coins. Social Security benefits are paid every month by the SSA, but not everyone is paid on the same date.
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The SSA advises waiting three working days before getting in touch if your payment hasn’t arrived as scheduled.
The amount of payment received by each recipient can vary, as it is dependent on various factors such as the age at which benefits are claimed and the earnings during their highest-paid years of work. The maximum monthly benefit that can be received in 2024 is $4,873, but this is applicable only to those who begin claiming at 70 years old.
If you choose to retire and begin receiving benefits at the earliest possible age of 62, the maximum benefit available to you would be $2,710.
Seniors are also waiting for the official Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) announcement, due in early October.
Independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson recently told Newsweek she expects seniors to get a 2.6 percent boost on their monthly payments. In its most-recent prediction, The Senior Citizens League said Social Security payments are expected to rise by 2.57 percent, which followed a previous prediction of 2.63 percent.
This is lower than recent COLA increases, which is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the third quarter of the year. In 2024, Social Security benefits increased by 3.2 percent, and in 2023, there was a historic rise of 8.7 percent due to high inflation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The estimates we’re seeing of COLA for 2025 signal an encouraging sign of cooling inflation,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.
“At the same point, seniors may look at this and still be frustrated, because the estimate still points to higher prices on many items sticking around. It’s progress, but perhaps not enough for seniors who are exhausted from seeing prices substantially over their pre-pandemic amounts.”
