If you are on Social Security, the money you get every month may be consistent and make sense to you. On the other hand, you should not get too comfortable because new outside forces are always changing you and your rewards.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) does everything it can to make sure you get paid every month. But there are times when important things need to be taken care of so that your money arrives on time and in full.
How will Social Security decide when to pay you in December?
To put it simply, they will follow the rules set out in their Annual Payment Schedule, which can be found on their website. It is too bad that this file has the schedules for all of the programs that the Social Security Administration runs.
Because of this, you might find information that has nothing to do with your case, and if you are not careful, you might get the date wrong. One solution could be to learn how the SSA’s calendar is put together.
The Social Security Administration sorts its recipients into groups to figure out how to pay them. To begin, people who started getting benefits before May 1997 will get their Social Security checks on the third of the month.
This includes people who started getting benefits through any program. Second, people who dare are put into different groups based on the program. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients will get their money on the first of every month.
The rest of the recipients, who are in three programs: Old Age Insurance, Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance, will get their money on Wednesdays from the second to the fourth week of every month.
| Wednesday of the Month | Beneficiary’s Birth Date |
| Second | 1st to 10th |
| Third | 11th to 20th |
| Fourth | 21st to 31st |
What is the specific date you can expect Social Security to pay you?
People whose birthday is between January 1 and October 10—they have already been paid. People born between November 11th and December 20th will get their money on Wednesday, December 18th.
However, the last group will not get their money on Wednesday, December 25th, as was first planned. The Social Security Administration added a new rule to protect your benefits, which is why this is happening. It is not a mistake.
If your payment is due on a holiday or weekend, the SSA will always send it early to avoid any problems with banks that could cause it to be late. Some SSA recipients will get their Christmas early this year because they will get their checks on December 24th.
How generous will Social Security be with this check?
The size of your Social Security check this Christmas will depend on the program you belong to and how much you have contributed to the SSA. However, here you can find some data to give you an overview:
- Retirement Insurance: $1,876.95
- Survivors: $1,508.29
- Disability Insurance: $1,404.51
- SSI: $698.35
If you are not a member of Social Security, what can you do?
After seeing this, you want to be part of Social Security and get a monthly Social Security benefit; the best way to start is to check the eligibility requirements. This is a small summary of them:
- Retirement Insurance: The amount of time you contribute to Social Security taxes is crucial for this program. You will need at least 10 years of contributions and be at least 62 years old.
- Survivors: As this program focuses on the dependents of a deceased worker, the requirements are associated with the time the worker contributed to the SSA and vary according to his age.
- Disability Insurance: The main requirement is to have contributed for five years out of the last ten and be medically declared disabled or blind.
- SSI: As it focuses on the most vulnerable population, it requires a monthly income of less than $1,971 and a net worth of less than $2,000.