This week, another round of Social Security beneficiaries will be receiving cash from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The SSA sends out payments according to a strict schedule that rarely deviates. This is to ensure that beneficiaries are able to budget their month with the assurance that they will be paid in a timely manner. With a new round of payments set to go off this week, some beneficiaries may be receiving over $5,000 in benefits from the SSA.
How the SSA structures its payments
The SSA follows a strict and timely payment schedule and distributes its benefits to beneficiaries depending on a variety of factors. Since its inception, the SSA has famously never missed a payment to its beneficiaries, including during World War Two. The following is the general schedule that recipients can expect to see their payments being made for this month:
- Wednesday, June 11: Birth dates between the first and 10th of the month.
- Wednesday, June 18: Birth dates between the 11th and the 20th of the month.
- Wednesday, June 25: Birth dates between the 21st and the 31st of the month
However, these payment dates do not apply to you if you claimed your SSA benefits before May 1997 or if you receive both retirement and Supplementary Security Income (SSI) payments. If you fall into either of these camps, your payment is made on the third of the month. Additionally, if you only receive SSI, you are paid on the first of the month.
For this month, SSI-only beneficiaries would have noticed that they did not receive a payment this month, but did receive an additional May payment paid out on May 30. This is because June 1 for this year fell on a weekend, meaning that the usual payment made on the first had to be advanced to earlier in the week. This was also the case for veterans who receive benefits for service-related disabilities from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Who will be receiving over $5,000 in cash?
Therefore, according to the Social Security payment schedule, the next round of payments will go out this coming Wednesday for beneficiaries who have a birthdate between the 21st and 31st of any month of the year. Some of these beneficiaries will be receiving up to $5,108, which is the maximum Social Security payment you can receive from retirement benefits.
In order to receive this maximum payment, you need to meet certain criteria as a beneficiary. Most importantly, you can only receive this payment if you waited to claim your benefits at 70 years old. While you can start claiming your benefits as early as 62 years old, the SSA raises the amount of benefits you receive if you choose to delay claiming your benefits.
How to increase your Social Security benefits?
For many retirees, delaying benefits is not an option, and they have to start claiming at the earliest age of 62. Because of this, retirees are often looking for ways to maximize their benefits. One way you can boost your benefits is to understand how spousal benefits work. To maximize your benefits, the lower-earning spouse should claim their spousal benefits before the higher-earning spouse and delay the higher-earning spouse’s claim.
Another way you can boost your SSA benefits is if you can still claim spousal benefits even if you are a divorced individual. According to the SSA, any couple who was married for at least ten years can claim spousal benefits, even if the marriage ended in a divorce. Additionally, while most people think that once you claim your benefits, you cannot reverse your decision, you are, in fact, allowed to go back on your claim within one year of when you did claim your benefits if you decide to wait to receive a higher payment.
