Payments for retirees collecting Social Security benefits will be made this week.
As tens of millions of Americans claim numerous types of benefits every month, not everyone is paid on the same day. Retirees and their family members made up 87 percent of those who claimed benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) in June this year.
This week, checks administered by the SSA will be paid to beneficiaries with birthdays that fall between the 11th and 20th of any given month in the year on Wednesday, August 21.
Those with birthdays between the 1st and 10th of a month were paid last week, and those with birthdays falling between the 21st and 31st will get their money next Wednesday, August 28.
The SSA advises waiting three working days before getting in touch if your payment hasn’t arrived as scheduled.
Not every recipient is paid the same amount, and how much you get depends on several factors, including the age you started claiming and how much you earned during your highest-paid years of work. The most you can get in 2024 is $4,873 per month, and is only available to those who begin claiming at 70 years of age.
If you stop working and opt to take your retirement benefits at 62, the earliest age possible, your maximum benefit would be $2,710.
Benefits are expected to rise in 2025 due to the Cost of Living Adjustment, commonly known as COLA.
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 latest prediction, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) said Social Security payments are expected to rise by 2.57 percent, which followed a previous prediction of 2.63 percent.
This is likely because inflation fell to 2.9 percent in July from 3 percent in June. Lower inflation rates are, generally speaking, positive for the American consumer as it means prices are not rising at an unaffordable rate.
However, it does mean that Social Security recipients will likely see lower monthly payment increases for the next year.
“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.”
The next COLA update is set to be announced in October.
