Social Security checks are going out later than usual this month: find out why there’s a delay
In August 2025, Social Security beneficiaries have been hit with a longer-than-usual wait for their monthly benefits check.
Millions of Social Security beneficiaries in the U.S. are enduring an unusually lengthy wait for this month’s check.
Why are August’s benefits arriving late?
Many of the U.S.’s 66.9 million recipients of retirement, disability or survivor benefits are paid on one of three Wednesdays each month, starting on the second Wednesday.
But because August 2025 began on a Friday, the first of these payment dates won’t arrive until the 13th - the second-latest possible point in the month.
Here are August 2025’s Wednesday payment dates:
Under the three-Wednesdays system, beneficiaries are paid on the second, third or fourth Wednesday in each month.
An individual’s designated Wednesday depends on the date of birth of the worker whose Social Security taxes have accumulated the benefits entitlement.
In August 2025, this system translates into the following payment timeline:
- Weds., Aug. 13: recipients born on 1st to 10th of each month
- Weds., Aug. 20: recipients born on 11th to 20th of each month
- Weds., Aug. 27: recipients born on 21st to 31st of each month
Who escapes the long August wait for a Social Security check?
Beneficiaries who began claiming retirement, disability or survivor checks before May 1997 are paid on the third of each month, regardless of their date of birth.
But because August 3 was a Sunday, this payment date was brought forward to the nearest working day. As a result, this group of long-term recipients was scheduled to be issued its money on Friday last week.
What’s more, if you benefit from both Social Security and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) scheme - a separate program for low-income Americans who are over 65 or have a disability - you should also have been paid last Friday.
Normally, SSI would be issued on the first, with Social Security following on the third. However, as August 3 fell on a weekend, both benefits were paid on the opening day of the month.
Will August’s long wait for benefits happen again in 2025?
No, but nearly. In November, the three-Wednesdays system won’t kick in until the 12th.
Social Security beneficiaries’ longest wait in 2025 came in May, when the month’s second Wednesday didn’t arrive until the very latest possible date - the 14th.
Such patience-testing holdups contrast with January and October 2025 - both months in which the second Wednesday fell/will fall on the eighth, the earliest possible date.
What happens next month?
In September 2025, the second, third and fourth Wednesday fall on the 10th, 17th and 24th, respectively.
You can take a look at the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) complete payment calendar for 2025 on the agency website.
How much money do Social Security beneficiaries receive each month?
Retired workers - who account for the vast majority of all Social Security recipients - are paid an average of $2,005.05 a month, according to statistics released by the SSA.
Disabled workers get a monthly average of $1,582.07, while survivor benefits are worth an average of $1,571.30 per month.
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