Every month, the United States Social Security Administration lets beneficiaries know when the check will be mailed. In this sense, the payment schedule always follows a fixed schedule that helps retirees to know the collection days.
For this reason, we can follow the payment schedule to be able to determine at what time of each month we will have Social Security money available. In total, the Administration sends out four different checks during each month. Each of these checks arrives on a different day.
There is also an extra check that arrives at the beginning of each month. Although the Social Security Administration provides this benefit to retirees, it also provides these checks to United States citizens who do not have a retirement payment. This extra check is the Supplemental Security Income check.
Schedule of Social Security payments
In order to get each of the Social Security payments we must meet certain requirements. The truth is that if we are eligible for one day’s payment we cannot get check on a different day. So we need to know which group of retirees we belong to.
As a general rule, we will get the payment on one of these days of each month:
- 1st of each month. Supplemental Security Income payment. This payment is only for certain eligible Americans. If the 1st is a holiday or weekend, the payment is sent on the immediately preceding business day.
- 3rd of each month. Payment for pre-1997 retirees. Like the check above, when the 3rd day of a month is a holiday or weekend, the Social Security Administration pays this check on the immediately preceding business day.
- 2nd Wednesday of the month. Post-1997 retirees with birthdays between the 1st and 10th of the month.
- 3rd Wednesday of the month. Post-1997 Social Security beneficiaries with a date of birth between the 11th and 20th of any month.
- 4th Wednesday of the month. Retirees with a post-1997 benefit and a birthday between the 21st and 31st collect on this day.
It is true that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Wednesday of the month may be a holiday at some point, but this is not the norm. For that reason, it is rare to see payment for one of these days being advanced. Therefore, we have to keep in mind that the payment in these cases is usually on these days.
We also have to keep in mind that these are the days on which the Social Security Administration sends out the check. Getting it earlier or later will depend on the collection method we have activated.