The United States Social Security Administration has a set payment schedule. This schedule operates at the federal level, meaning that all Americans in all states are paid on the same day. In total there are four different days that the Administration sends out checks. And on each of those days a different group of Americans gets their benefit.
The U.S. Social Security payment system requires you to meet several requirements to belong to one group or another. So just by checking that personal information we will be able to find out if we belong to day 1 or day 3 group, for example. What we must take into account is that the information regarding the requirements is related to the personal data itself.
This means that we will be in one group of retirees or another depending on our data. Therefore, belonging to one group of retirees means that we meet those requirements and not others. Can we change our Social Security retiree group? The short and simple answer is no, we can’t do that.
The long answer is that we can’t because there are two requirements to be in one group or the other. The first is to have a Social Security check from before 1997 or after. The second requirement is related to the date of the birthday. For many reasons, therefore, it is impossible to change the day of the monthly payment.
WHY CAN’T I CHANGE THE DAY I GET SOCIAL SECURITY?
Because once we apply for a Social Security check, we can’t reapply for it again, that information can’t change. So if we have had a check since before 1997, payment arrives on the 3rd of each month (or earlier if that day is a holiday or weekend).
On the other hand, post-1997 retirees can get payment on up to three different days. And having them on the second, third or fourth Wednesday of the month depends on the day of the birthday. In short, since we can’t change the date of our birthday (at least officially), we can’t change the day the Social Security Administration will send us a check.
So your payment will be on the 3rd of the month or on the second, third, or fourth Wednesday of the month, depending on the day you were born. Although it may seem that some people get paid later, in reality the waiting time between checks is the same for everyone. Therefore, we don’t have to worry about getting check later.
RETIREMENT PAYMENT SCHEDULES
The type of retirement does not matter for getting check on one day of the month. As we have discussed, the important data to belong to a group of retirees are the year of retirement and the day of the birthday.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at a typical Social Security payment schedule:
- Pre-1997 retirees: 3rd day of the month. This may change if the 3rd day is a holiday or weekend. In that case, the Administration sends the check on the immediately preceding business day.
- Post-1997 retirees: Depends on the birthday.
- Beneficiaries born between the 1st and 10th of any month: second Wednesday of the month.
- Beneficiaries born between the 11th and 20th of any month: third Wednesday of the month.
- Beneficiaries born between the 21st and 31st of any month: fourth Wednesday of the month.
With this scheme we will have all the information very easy to know on which day the Administration will send us the new Social Security check each month. Whether or not we get it directly will depend on whether or not we have Direct Deposit activated.