This next payment is confirmed at $967, which will be paid out to beneficiaries come December 1. Every month, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is responsible for distributing millions of payments to its beneficiaries, ensuring that all are paid on time. The SSA follows a strict and timely schedule in order to achieve this, with payment dates rarely deviating from established and recurring dates. However, there are exceptions to this, which will see payments be advanced.
The SSA distributes millions of payments each month
The SSA is responsible for distributing payments for three groups of beneficiaries: Retirement benefits, Disability benefits, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Approximately 75 million beneficiaries receive Social Security benefits every month, the majority of whom are retirees. Payment dates follow a set schedule, with your payment date largely depending on what type of benefits you receive from the SSA, as well as your birthdate.
The general payment schedule the SSA follows for its beneficiaries each month is as follows:
- The second Wednesday of the month: your birthdate falls between the first and tenth of any given month.
- The third Wednesday of the month: your birthdate falls between the eleventh and twentieth of any given month.
- The fourth Wednesday of the month: your birthdate falls between the twenty-first and the thirty-first of any given month.
However, if you are an SSI-only recipient, your payments are made on the first of every month. If you receive both SSI and Retirement benefits, your SSI payments are also made on the first of the month, while your Retirement benefits are paid on the third of the month. Additionally, beneficiaries who claimed their benefits from the SSA before May 1997 are also always paid on the third of the month. However, payments are advanced when payment dates fall on a weekend or a holiday.
The next payment is confirmed at $967 for next month
Following the SSA’s payment date calendar and rules, the SSI payment schedule for 2025 shows that SSI recipients will not be receiving a payment on November 1. The next payment is confirmed at $967, which will be paid out on December 1. Due to November 1 falling on a weekend, SSI beneficiaries received a double payment in October, with their November payments paid out on October 31.
SSI is reserved for beneficiaries who have access to very little income and/or resources. Unlike Retirement benefits, which are paid out to you no matter what your additional income sources are, changes to your income level will affect whether or not you can qualify to receive SSI. It is for this reason that beneficiaries must always communicate with the SSA regarding their changes in income.
Changes for SSA beneficiaries are coming next year
Some major changes are expected to affect SSA beneficiaries. At the end of September of this year, the SSA eliminated the distribution of paper checks for beneficiaries, moving all payments to be sent via direct deposit. However, the following beneficiaries are permitted to apply for an exemption to this change:
- Beneficiaries who are aged 90 or older.
- Beneficiaries with mental impairments and disabilities.
- Beneficiaries who reside in remote geographic locations where financial infrastructure is lacking.
On top of these changes, the SSA recently announced that the new cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) statistic would be 2.8% for 2026 benefits. This is a slight increase from this year’s COLA, which was set at 2.5%. Every year, the SSA raises its beneficiaries’ benefits by applying the COLA statistic to them. COLA is intended to ensure that SSA benefits retain their buying power each year despite rises in inflation. A lower COLA implies that inflation has not risen dramatically, while a higher COLA indicates the reverse.
Disclaimer: This content is informational only and does not supersede or replace the SSA’s or IRS’s own publications and notices. Always verify any specific dates and amounts by following the direct links in our article to SSA.gov or IRS.gov, or by consulting your local SSA field office or tax professional.
