Social Security Checks of up to $4,873 To Be Paid This Week

The final round of Social Security retirement benefits for September will be paid this week. Social Security benefits are paid directly into bank accounts each month by the Social Security Administration (SSA), with the payment date being set according to when the claimant was born. On Wednesday, September 25, Social Security recipients with birthdays that fall between the 21st and 31st of any given month will get their payment. All other beneficiaries should have been paid before this date. Those who claim Supplemental Security Income (SSI) were paid on August 30, followed by payments for retirees who also claim Social Security and SSI, as well as those who have been claiming retirement checks since before before May 1997, being made on the 3rd. Anyone with birthdays between the 1st and 10th were paid on September 11, and those who were born between the 11th and 20th receiving their money on September 18. The SSA recommends waiting three working days before contacting them if your payment has not arrived. In January 2024, the average monthly retirement benefit for Social Security claimants was $1,907. The calculation for retirement benefits takes into account an individual’s 35 highest-earning years in their career and the age at which a person began claiming, and is also adjusted for inflation. On its website, the SSA explains: “The maximum benefit depends on the age you retire. For example, if you retire at full retirement age in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $3,822. However, if you retire at age 62 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $2,710. If you retire at age 70 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $4,873.” In October, the Cost of Living Adjustment, commonly known as COLA, for 2025 will be announced. Beneficiaries are expected to get around a 2.5 percent rise in their benefits, according to independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson. The boost is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) in the third quarter of the year—July, August and September. The increase is highly likely to be lower than recent COLA increases. This year, Social Security benefits were boosted by 3.2 percent, and in 2023 they jumped by 8.7 percent, the biggest annual increase in nearly 40 years, due to high inflation as caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The SSA has also made numerous changes in recent months to reduce administrative burdens on recipients, including removing the need for wet signatures on some application documents and adding new conditions to its compassionate allowances list, which accelerates access to benefits for those with serious conditions.