It is almost Christmas, and Social Security is ready to give a big present to a group of eligible retirees. The end of the year is coming up fast.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is working hard to send out the more than 70 million payments it makes every month, even though it is limited by its budget.
This does not change during the Christmas season, even though more people need help from this agency. Get ready for the end of the year by making sure you are part of the small group that will get their money in the next few weeks.
Why did Social Security decide to send this payment on Christmas?
It is possible that Social Security had a specific plan for how to give out money during the week of Christmas. This plan, on the other hand, is part of a bigger plan that was made months ago and is now set in stone in the annual payment schedule.
There, you will see that all of the SSA payments have been planned out according to the different programs, so they do not all happen at the same time.
You need to know that this Christmas payment is due to the way the Social Security Administration schedules payments. Their rules are pretty easy, and we will go over them in more depth here.
First, the SSA splits the people who can get help into two groups. One of them is for people who started getting benefits from them before 1997. The SSA will send them money on the third of every month. For the rest, extra criteria will be put in place.
There are two more groups for people who started getting Social Security benefits after May 1997. This time, the groups are based on the programs they are in. People who get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will get their money every month on the first.
The rest, which is made up of people who get Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits, will be split up even more. Lastly, each member of the OASDI group gets their Social Security payments based on the date they were born. They are paid every third Wednesday of the month and are split into three groups. From this table’s second to its fourth row:
| Beneficiary’s Birth Date | Wednesday of the Month |
| 1st to 10th | Second |
| 11th to 20th | Third |
| 21st to 31st | Fourth |
When can you expect Social Security to send your money?
The SSA did not plan a Social Security check for Christmas, as you can see from the previous rules. However, it did happen this week. So, people who get OASDI should know that:
- Started getting benefits before May 1997, and
- They were born between the 21st and 31st of the month.
Any payment made on a holiday by SSA is moved to the next working day, which in this case is December 25th. This means they will get their money on Tuesday, the 24th.
How much money will Social Security send you?
The amount we can give you is not set in stone. That being said, we can give you the most recent average Social Security benefits that the SSA has made public, which are from November:
- SSI: $698.35
- Old Age: $1,841.35
- Survivors: $1,508.29
- Disability Insurance: $1,404.51
What can you do if you are not part of Social Security?
Not everything is lost. You can still apply to get money from the SSA. But it is very important to fully understand the requirements for eligibility. For each program, we will give you a short summary of them.
- To qualify for SSI, you must earn less than $1,971 monthly and own assets worth less than $2,000. Be at least 65 years old or be disabled.
- Old Age: Contribute to Social Security for 10 years and reach the minimum retiring age of 62.
- Survivors: Dependents of dead workers who contributed to the Social Security Administration.
- To qualify for disability insurance, you must have contributed to the Social Security Administration for at least 5 years out of the last ten years and have a medical certification for your disability.
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