WASHINGTON, June 24, 2026, 11:27 (EDT)
- Social Security’s last regular June check is set for people whose birthdays fall from the 21st to the 31st.
- Some beneficiaries will get their early July payments on July 2, ahead of the Independence Day holiday.
- Paper-check users are exposed to added risk as the SSA moves the last beneficiaries to electronic payment.
The U.S. Social Security Administration will send out its final June payment on Wednesday. This payment goes to people with birthdays from the 21st to the 31st, the fourth-Wednesday group listed on the agency’s 2026 calendar. The agency says to wait three extra mailing days before calling if the payment doesn’t show up.
Social Security payments for most people who started getting benefits after May 1997 are set by birth date. Payments land the second Wednesday if the birthday falls between the 1st and 10th, the third Wednesday if it’s the 11th to 20th, and the fourth Wednesday for the 21st to 31st. For those collecting on another person’s record, the Social Security Administration takes the worker’s birthday as the reference, AS USA said.
SSI is different from Social Security. It’s for people who are aged, blind or disabled and have low income and few assets. Those SSI payments landed June 1. Social Security payees who began benefits before May 1997, or those getting both Social Security and SSI, saw their money hit on June 3.
Social Security sent checks to 71.233 million people in May 2026. The average benefit landed at $1,934.52 for the month, the latest SSA snapshot showed. Retirement benefits averaged $2,028.00. Retired workers saw a higher average, getting $2,082.76.
Payments for this year are getting a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, which is the yearly boost linked to consumer prices. According to the SSA, the hike started with Social Security benefits paid in January 2026 and SSI payments sent out Dec. 31, 2025.
July payment dates shift for Social Security and SSI. Newsweek said SSI will go out July 1. Those who started Social Security before May 1997 or also get SSI are set for July 2. Payments based on birth dates will hit on July 8, July 15, and July 22.
The July 2 payment comes before the Independence Day holiday this year. Federal employees are set to observe the holiday on Friday, since July 4 is a Saturday in 2026, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
SSA is set to phase out its last paper checks for benefits, shifting everyone to electronic payments. The agency said in a June 2 post that under federal law and Executive Order 14247, all benefits have to be paid electronically from Sept. 30, 2025. SSA said paper checks are 16 times likelier to get lost, stolen, altered, or returned undeliverable than electronic payments.
The bigger concern for beneficiaries isn’t just this week’s calendar. The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is on track to pay full scheduled benefits only through the fourth quarter of 2032, trustees said this month. After that, income would be enough to pay just 78% of scheduled benefits. Looking at the combined retirement, survivors and disability funds, those are projected to meet full benefits through 2034, then drop to 83%.
Mary Johnson, an independent analyst who tracks Social Security and Medicare, sees the 2027 COLA hitting 4.7% or higher if hot inflation holds up. “Enormous cost pressures” are hitting, she said. Shannon Benton at the Senior Citizens League added that seniors are just working to pay “food, a roof over their head, and transportation.” asppa-net.org
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