No one can wait for the holidays, and December is coming up fast. Having said that, Social Security also thinks about the well-being of the people who receive it.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) may send you a new gift. The best way to find out is to fully understand how their schedule works and make sure you can meet all of their needs. If you want to learn more about it, keep reading.
How does the SSA structure its Social Security schedule?
The Social Security Administration (SSA) will do everything possible to make sure that everyone gets their full and on-time Social Security benefits.
This means they need to be spread out in a way that keeps mistakes and delays from happening.
This idea is shown in their yearly payment schedule, which lists the due date for each program and month. To fully understand what the SSA has planned for this New Year’s Eve, it is better to know how they make their schedules.
How much the SSA pays you depends on the programs you are in, when you started getting benefits, and the date you were born. All of these things work well with how the Social Security Administration divides up its population.
First, SSA divides beneficiaries into two groups based on when their benefits began, with May 1997 as the middle date.
Before this date, the group will get their money on the first of every month, no matter what program they are in. The group is then hit by another problem. In this case, by their program.
Everyone who gets Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will get a check from Social Security on the first of every month. The last group is made up of people who get Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI).
Their payments are spread out over the range of their birth dates, and each group is split into three more groups based on the payments schedule:
| Beneficiary’s Birth Date Interval | Payment Date |
| 1st to 10th | Second Wednesday |
| 11th to 20th | Third Wednesday |
| 21st to 31st | Fourth Wednesday. |
Who is going to receive the $947 payment from Social Security?
People who get SSI are the only ones who can get this $947 Social Security payment. The first of the month is when they should get their share, so you might wonder why they will get it.
The answer is simple. SSA’s payments are moved around if they happen to fall on a holiday or weekend. In this case, the $947 payment due on December 31st is the payment for January 2021.
What can you do to get that money even if you are not currently a member of Social Security?
There are clear rules from SSA about what you need to do to join the SSI program. But over time, they have been changing their rules to make it easier for people to apply and be accepted. In general, these are the requirements:
- Being 65 years old or older or being disabled (this applies both to adults and children).
- Having less than $2,000 if applying as an individual or $3,000 if it is done as a couple.
- You must earn less than $1,971 as an individual or not more than $2,915 if you are applying as a couple.
It is important to think about what other benefits you may have, like other government aid or help from people, that could be counted toward your living costs.
This is because they could also raise your total income, lower your benefits, or keep you from joining the program.
Where does the $947 amount in your Social Security come from?
If you get SSI benefits or know about them, you will know that the average SSI Social Security check for a single person is $943.
The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will also be added to the benefits of people who get SSI, which means they will get more money. In 2025, the COLA will be 2.5%, so remember that. That means the new amount is $947.
