Social Security Payments of up to $4,873 To Be Handed Out This Week

The final round of Social Security payments for July will be sent out this week.

Social Security benefits are paid every month to beneficiaries, with tens of millions of Americans paid each month. As the funds are managed and administered by the federal government, not everyone is paid on the same date due to the sheer amount of money being paid and high number of recipients.

Beneficiaries born between the 21st and 31st of any given month in the year will receive their Social Security retirement check on Wednesday, July 24. Recipients born on dates earlier in the month, as well as those collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI), should have already received their money.

Generally, recipients are paid according to when their birthday is, except from those who have been claiming Social Security since before May 1997 or who collect SSI. Both of these groups are paid in the first week of the month.

The SSA recommends waiting three working days before getting in touch if your payment hasn’t arrived as scheduled.

The amount received by each individual Social Security recipient varies, as it is based on several factors such as the age at which benefits were claimed and the individual’s highest-earning years of work.

As of 2024, the maximum monthly benefit is $4,873, and is likely to increase in 2025 due to the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Last year, the adjustment resulted in a 3.2 percent increase in benefits for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients as of December 2023 and for Social Security beneficiaries as of January this year.

For individuals who retire in the year 2024, the highest retirement benefit is only on the table for those who retire at the age of 70. If you opt to start receiving retirement benefits at 62, the earliest possible age, your maximum benefit would be $2,710.

Across retired workers, the average benefit paid out in June 2024 was $1,869.77, according to the latest data from the SSA.

However, a recent report by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) found the buying power of Social Security benefits has declined by 20 percent since 2010 due to “insufficient” COLA rises.

In its 2024 Loss of Buying Power study, TSCL said the value of seniors’ benefits has dropped by 20 percent since 2010.

“Without an accurate cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that keeps pace with rising costs, beneficiaries lose purchasing power, especially over the course of a retirement that could last 25 to 30 years,” TSCL said in its report. “This loss is cumulative and grows deeper as retirees age. It can cause substantial hardships, including more rapid depletion of savings than expected, growing debt, and worse health outcomes.”