How many Social Security benefits payments remain from 2021? when are they coming?
With prices rising at the fastest clip in three decades Social Security recipients are looking forward to higher monthly payments set to begin next year.
The Social Security Administration announced the highest increase to payment in forty years. The annual increase to benefits has been in effect for over four decades to keep the purchasing power of monthly payments in line with inflation.
However, recipients will have to wait a couple more months before their monthly checks catch up with the past year’s inflation. So how many payments will there be until the new 2022 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) takes effect?
Also see:
2022 COLA increase begins with January payments
The last payments due to beneficiaries for October were made Wednesday on the 27th. That means there will be two remaining payments to recipients based on the 2021 rates this year in November and December according to the Social Security Administration’s schedule for benefits payments.
The first payments based on the 2022 COLA will be made to those receiving Supplemental Security Income, their payments go out on the first of each month. Being that the first of the January is a holiday, every year the first payments for the new year are moved forward to December. The first payments for 2022 will be made on Thursday 30 December. The rest of the increased payments will begin in January following the Social Security Administration’s schedule for benefits payments for 2022.
When are Social Security benefits paid each month?
The Social Security Administration spreads out payments for beneficiaries over four weeks each month depending on the type of payment, when a beneficiary began to claim their entitlement or the day of the month they were born.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments go out the first of each month, or when that day is a holiday or a Sunday, the last workday of the prior month.
Social Security beneficiaries who started receiving their monthly Social Security payments prior to May 1997 can expect their entitlement the third of each month. Those who receive both SSI and Social Security also receive their payments on the third of each month. Likewise, if that day is a holiday or falls on a Sunday the payment will be moved forward to the previous business day.
For the rest of recipients, the Social Security Administration spreads them over the three following weeks based on their date of birth. Payments go out on Wednesdays each week for Social Security beneficiaries that signed up after May 1997.
The order is fairly logical, those that were born during the first ten days of a month receive their payments in the second week of each month. Birthdays that fall on the next ten calendar days of a month receive their payment in the third week. And the fourth week payments are made to all recipients with birthdays that fall within the final eleven days of a month.
For all recipients, the Social Security Administration cautions not to contact the agency immediately if a payment isn’t received but to allow three additional mailing days.