The Social Security Administration’s December payment schedule brings several surprises. This means that many recipients of these United States benefits may get extra checks, as well as checks outside of the usual mailing days.
Thanks to these irregularities, it is possible to reach up to 3 different Social Security checks within the month of December. This is the maximum within all months with irregularities, as it is not possible to cash more than these checks even if there are advances on some payments.
Whether or not we get the three checks will depend on the benefits we have accepted, as well as whether we meet certain mandatory conditions. Likewise, if we only have one Social Security retirement check, we will not be able to receive all three checks, but will only get one.
Similarly, the collection method chosen is also important in order to get all three payments within December. Having a particular collection method activated is critical to being able to get three different SSA payments in the last month of 2023.
COMPLETE SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEDULE IN DECEMBER
To best understand if we can get three Social Security payments in the month of December 2023 it is best to check the full calendar. If we look at the calendar and see that we can get three of the payments we already know that we are on the list of lucky beneficiaries who will cash three different checks.
The Administration sends out in the month of December the payments on the following days:
- December 1st. December 1. December Supplemental Security Income payment.
- December 1st. Retirement check for pre-1997 beneficiaries.
- December 13th. Post-1997 retirees with birthdays between the 1st and 10th of the month get this check.
- December 20th. Post-1997 retirees with birthdays between the 11th and 20th of the month get this check.
- December 27th. Post-1997 retirees with birthdays between the 21st and 31st of the month get this check.
- December 29th. January Supplemental Security Income payment. This payment comes early due to an irregularity in the January calendar.
Now that you know the days of the payments, you should keep in mind which one you might get. At most, you could get a Social Security retirement payment, whether for disability or other reasons, on the 1st, 13th, 20th, or 27th of December. Only one of these payments can be collected.
To this payment we can add the payments for the 1st and 29th of December. However, in order to get all these payments we must have both Supplemental Security Income accepted and Direct Deposit activated. This method of collection means that we get the checks immediately.
If we do not activate Direct Deposit, we will not be able to get three Social Security payments in December even if we have Supplemental Security Income. In that case, we may only get the 1st day’s SSI payments and the retirement payment on the day it is due.