A new round of Social Security payments is scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday, with a subset of beneficiaries set to receive up to thousands of dollars in monthly benefits.
Social Security benefits are paid out on four different dates each month and the timing depends on how long beneficiaries have been claiming benefits as well as their birthdays.
Benefits are paid on the second, third and fourth Wednesdays of the month with retirees whose birthdays fall between the first and 10th days of the month getting their benefits on the second Wednesday, while those born between the 11th and 20th falling on the third Wednesday. Those born from the 21st to the 31st get paid on the fourth Wednesday.
However, retirees who have been receiving Social Security benefits since at least May 1997 are paid on the third day of each month. If they’re also receiving Supplemental Security Income, they receive that on the first day of the month.
MILLIONS TO GET HIGHER SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS UNDER NEW LAW
Retirees who claim their Social Security benefits when they reach the safety net program’s full retirement age of 67 receive a maximum monthly payment of $4,018.
Americans can opt to begin receiving Social Security sooner than that in exchange for receiving smaller monthly payments. The earliest age at which Social Security benefits can be claimed is 62, when they would be eligible to receive a maximum monthly benefit of $2,831.
Social Security also incentivizes workers with a larger benefit if they delay retirement until age 70, which would allow them to receive a maximum monthly benefit of up to $5,108.
SOCIAL SECURITY’S FULL RETIREMENT AGE IS INCREASING IN 2025: WHAT TO KNOW
Social Security benefits are determined based on an individual beneficiary’s lifetime earnings and the length of time they have paid Social Security payroll taxes. Eligible beneficiaries have to work and pay into Social Security through payroll taxes for at least 10 years to receive benefits.
Benefits are adjusted annually to account for inflation through what’s known as a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). This year, a 2.5% COLA was applied to boost retirees’ 2025 Social Security benefits.
The 2.5% COLA is the smallest since 2021 as inflation has eased in recent years after it reached the highest level in four decades in 2022, though prices remain elevated and are straining household budgets.
The new COLA took effect for most Social Security recipients when they received their January benefit distributions.
