Millions of low-income seniors and disabled people who get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will get a new Social Security payment today. The amount they get will depend on their filing status when they apply for the program.
The federal government will send a new round of payments to retired workers, survivors, and disabled people who qualify for the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program (OASDI) on December 3. This payment is the last one for this round.
When will this year’s Social Security benefits increase for SSI recipients?
People who get SSI will still get one more payment from Social Security on December 31st, after today’s payment. The SSA usually sends out SSI payments on the first of every month.
However, because January 1 is a holiday, beneficiaries will get this payment in December 2024. Also, people who get SSI will be the first people in the US to get the higher payment, which includes the new 2.5% cost of living adjustment (COLA).
Because of this rise, these people will get the following amounts in payments on December 31st:
| SSI benefits | Social Security checks | 2.5% COLA increase | Extra income |
| On average | $698 | $715 | $17 |
| Individuals | $943 | $967 | $24 |
| Couples | $1,415 | $1,450 | $35 |
| Essential person | $472 | $484 | $12 |
It is important to know that the SSA says you should wait three mailing days before calling customer service if your payment does not arrive on time.
Still, remember that you can always get in touch with the Social Security Administration online, through their automated phone lines, or by going to My Social Security Account.
How is your SSI payment calculated each month by the federal agency?
Before giving someone their SSI payment, the SSA will send them a letter telling them when and how much they will get. Social Security figures out the first SSI payment for a person starting the first full month after they apply for or are approved for SSI.
The amount of the payment might change from one month to the next. The amount is based on other income and where the person lives. Social Security will let the person who gets the payment know ahead of time whenever the amount changes.
To keep up with rising costs of living, both federal and state SSI payments could be increased. These price hikes usually happen in January.
When someone is ineligible for a while and then becomes eligible again, they may get a payment that is split between the date they became eligible and the end of the month.
If a person is eligible, they may get an SSI payment on the tenth of the month, depending on how many days have passed since the tenth and the last day of the month.
In order to figure out how much to pay, the person’s income and living situation are first looked at. You can better understand how your SSI payment is calculated if you know the following formula:
- SSI payment: the maximum SSI federal benefit rate minus the beneficiary’s countable income.
Based on SSA rules, the first $20 of most income is not taken into account. For example, Social Security will only count half of your income after the first $65 is taken out.
This includes money from a job. If you get benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the SSA does not count them either. It might seem easy to figure out how much your Social Security check is worth.
The SSA says that all income that needs to be counted should fall into one of four groups. This makes it easy to see which funds are countable earnings.
At this point, things get a little trickier because Social Security also has to take into account all the earned income, unearned income, in-kind income, and deemed income.
So, to find the countable income, take earned income and subtract $65. Then, add unearned income, in-kind income, and deemed income.