There are millions of people in the U.S. who may have already received a surprise check from Social Security worth as much as $4,800.
Social Security benefits are sent out by the federal government on a weekly basis, depending on when a person’s birthday falls during the month and how long they’ve received benefits.
People who are born between the first and 10th of the month receive their checks on the eighth. That means that, as of Wednesday of this week, those people will receive an average extra check of $1,900.
Four additional Social Security payments are scheduled for May, based on how the month falls. People who started receiving Social Security benefits by May 1997 or earlier received their payments earlier this week. Those with other birthdates are waiting for theirs.
People born between the 11th and 20th of the month will see their additional payment come on the third Wednesday of the month, which will be May 15. People born between the 21st and 31st of the month will get their checks deposited a week later, on May 22.
This year, Social Security payments increased by 3.2% because of the cost-of-living adjustment that is made every year. That’s a sizable jump, but it’s much less than Social Security beneficiaries received in 2023 — a whopping 8.7%.
That huge increase for last year was due to inflation, which spiked considerably from 2022 to 2023. And while it’s still on the rise, it isn’t increasing as much as it was last year.
Under this year’s calculation, the average Social Security beneficiary is set to receive about $1,867 per month. Some people might bring in anywhere from $2,572 per month to $4,800 per month, based on what their retirement age was as well as how much money they paid into the Social Security system during their working years.
The average increase in benefits for 2024 was $50 per person, per month. Despite this higher payment, not everyone is pleased.
In a previous interview with Newsweek, the national retirement practice leader at Segal — an employee benefits consulting firm — Jonathan Price said:
“Whether the annual COLA is appropriate for a specific retiree to ensure equal purchasing power as the prior year is highly specific to the life situation of the individual retiree, both in terms of expenses and other sources of income.”
Seniors have been experiencing big upticks in expenses for things such as transportation and health care in recent years. Many retirees have also been worried that Social Security will soon run out of money, which could leave them high and dry.
The current estimates show that funding for the program could become insolvent by the next decade. If that ends up happening, then Americans wouldn’t receive full payments anymore.
Annually, the Social Security Administration sends about $1.4 trillion in benefit payments, to more than 70 million people.
