Social Security benefits in the United States follow an established schedule. This schedule has rules that are repeated month after month, but there are times when we encounter some irregularities that force retirees to collect checks a little later than usual. In the case of December, a group of beneficiaries will be able to collect the check later than ever.
To be more precise it is not only one group that will get the check late, but three. The last three groups to collect Social Security will get check later while the first to collect will get the money earlier than usual. These irregularities will change retirees’ overall plans a bit, but there is nothing to worry about.
If we have a check accepted we will be able to get payment in the month of December, regardless of the irregularities. Therefore, a Social Security payment will arrive in our bank account, either sooner or later. Regardless of whether we have a disability benefit, age retirement or some other reason.
Retiree groups are not divided by type of retirement, but by other factors related to year of retirement and birthday. Therefore, it makes no difference what type of benefit we have in determining whether we will get check in December earlier or later than usual.
WHICH GROUP WILL GET THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK LATER IN DECEMBER?
The group of retirees who will get their Social Security check later than usual will be the group of post-1997 retirees. This group is further divided into three different groups and all of these groups will receive checks later than usual.
This is because the month starts on a Friday. And when a month starts on a Friday, the retirees in these groups receive their benefits in the third week rather than the second week. This means that the first of these three groups gets a check on December 13, which is unusual for this type of benefit.
Therefore, we are dealing with the December calendar for these groups of post-1997 beneficiaries:
- December 13th. Retirees with birthdays between the 1st and 10th of any month.
- December 20th. Beneficiaries with birthdays between the 11th and 20th of any month.
- December 27th. Retirees with birthdays between the 21st and 31st.
So if you belong to one of these groups you will have to wait a little longer to get Social Security. While it is true that they are still on the second, third and fourth Wednesdays of the month, waiting until the 13th for the first of the payments seems much longer.
WHEN DO PRE-1997 RETIREES RECEIVE THEIR BENEFITS?
And the other irregularity in the December calendar is that pre-1997 retirees collect their check earlier. This payment will arrive on the 1st of December due to an irregularity. Therefore, if we have both the Social Security retirement payment and Supplemental Security Income we can get both checks at the same time.
This benefit should arrive on the 3rd for this group of retirees, but since that day is Sunday in December, the payment is brought forward to the 1st. Even so, if we want to get the payment on the same day we must activate Direct Deposit. Otherwise, we will not be able to collect the payment on that day but will get it later.
The same happens with the Supplemental Security Income payment for that day, which will arrive on its usual day but will coincide with this other check. If we activate Direct Deposit we will be able to get both the SSI and Social Security payments on the same day, December 1st.