When will July 2022 Social Security benefits be sent?
Depending on when you were born and what type of benefits you are receiving will determine when the Social Security Administration sends your payment.
The Social Security Administration handles benefit payments for four major programs including retirement, disability, survivors and Supplemental Security Income. The agency spreads out payments across the month based what type of benefits a recipient is receiving, when they were born and when they began collecting benefits.
All recipients are required to sign up to receive their benefits via electronic deposit either into a bank account or onto a Direct Express Debit Mastercard. This has the upside that your benefits won’t get lost in the mail and are there on the day they are scheduled to be sent.
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When will Social Security benefits be paid in July 2022?
Every month the Social Security Administration must undertake the enormous administrative challenge of distributing around 70 million payments to Americans. Social Security benefits are staggered across the month to ease the workload for the Social Security Administration, following a payment calendar the agency has established.
Birth date 1st – 10th - Second Wednesday of the month (13 July 2022)
Birth date 11th – 20th - Third Wednesday of the month (20 July 2022)
Birth date 21st – 31th - Fourth Wednesday of the month (27 July 2022)
Payments for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are scheduled for the first day of the month, except when that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or national holiday. In these instances, the SSI payments will go out at the very end of the previous month.
Finally, for those who began receiving benefits before May 1997 or they are receiving both Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, they will be paid their Social Security benefits on the third of the month. Except as was the case in July when the third fell on a Sunday. As with Supplemental Security Income benefits, the payment date is moved up to the nearest business day, which is 1 July, the same day that Supplemental Security Income payments.
Inflation eating into Social Security benefits
Many households are wholly reliant on their Social Security funds to make ends meet, but the recent spat of high inflation has been tough on recipients’ finances. Benefits are given an annual boost through the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to help them maintain purchasing power. The 5.9 percent 2022 COLA was the largest increase to the monthly payments in 40 years.
However, inflation in May alone was 8.6 percent. Furthermore, according to the way that the COLA is calculated it hasn’t been keeping up with the actual rising cost of living for seniors according to The Senior Citizens League. In a report in 2021, the advocacy group for seniors estimates that Social Security benefits have lost 30 percent of their purchasing power since 2000.
Legislation has been introduced that would go some way to alleviating this erosion of purchasing power and at the same time strengthen the program’s own financial health. A proposal by Democrats would address the issue for the recipients of Social Security benefits with a $200 monthly boost, while shoring up the program for the next 75 years.
Republicans have been putting forth proposals as well. If nothing is done in Congress, Social Security beneficiaries could see their monthly payments cut thirteen years from now.