The Social Security Administration sends an SSI check every month to low-income adults over 65 who are having a hard time paying their bills. SSI payments are one of the most important programs in the country because they help poor and vulnerable Americans meet their needs and sometimes even get out of poverty.
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has been around since 1972 and gives more than seven million Americans a monthly check. It helps people stay out of poverty during hard times and gives them a sense of protection and financial stability. It works with other programs like SNAP.
It is very important for your financial health to know what you need to do to get an SSI check and when to expect it. Because this benefit is meant to help Americans with low incomes, any mistake can mean that a payment is not made. Pay attention to this post if you get an SSI check every month or know someone who does. We’ll talk about why a second payment is due this week.
How can you obtain an SSI check?
As always, the first step to getting an SSI check is to apply, and to do that, you need to know how SSA administers this program. There are several requirements that you must meet to be considered a potential beneficiary, which can be summarized as follows:
- Income: You earn less than $1,971 a month.
- Assets: You have less than $2,000 (for individuals) or $3,000 (for couples).
- Demographics: You are 65 or older or have a disability.
Why are you going to receive a double SSI check?
The SSA keeps a yearly calendar that lists all of the due dates for payments for all of the programs they are in charge of. Remember that you can always look at the Social Security payment plan for this year to learn more about your SSI check and other Social Security payments.
As you can see, though, the color scheme that is used for SSI payouts is also used for another program, which can be hard to understand. Here’s how you can find out when your money will be sent to the other account. Because of this, all recipients need to remember these two rules:
- When you started to receive your benefits.
- The day on which the payment of the benefit falls.
The first rule is that SSA divides its beneficiaries into two groups based on when they first started getting payments. The first group is made up of people who started getting monthly payments before May 1997. This includes people who are part of the following programs:
- Retirement Insurance.
- Disability Insurance.
- Survivors program.
- SSI.
That’s it for this group. The date changes for the rest of them, those who started getting benefits after May 1997. In this study, people who get SSI get paid on the first of every month. But there is one thing that makes the second rule make sense.
SSA has chosen to make the payment the next business day if the due date happens on a holiday or weekend. This is done to make sure that there are no problems or delays in getting your SSI checks, which would have a big effect on your funds.
This means that when this happens, SSA recipients will get two SSI checks, just like they did this month. SSI recipients got their first check for August 2024 on Tuesday, August 1. However, because September 1 is a Sunday, they will get the next check on Friday, August 30.
Why is this important? Because a lot of people might think they are getting a double payment because SSA made a mistake or as a special gift. However, this extra money needs to last for the whole month.