Social Security Update: Payment of $4,873 Goes Out This Week

A stock image of a Social Security card with U.S. Dollar bills. Payments are made to Social Security recipients every month.

Social Security benefits are paid monthly to tens of millions of Americans—with some recipients set to receive nearly $5,000.

In 2024, an average of almost 68 million Americans per month will receive some form of Social Security benefit, whether that be retirement, disability, or survivor benefits. The Social Security Administration (SSA) expects to pay out around $1.5 trillion throughout the year.

However, due to the huge number of recipients and vast amount of money being dispensed, not every claimant is paid on the same date each month. For most retirees, payments are almost always made on a Wednesday.

This coming Wednesday, June 26, retirees who were born between the 21st to 31st of any given month in the year will get their monthly check from the SSA. All other beneficiaries, including those with different birthdays, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients, those who have been claiming since before 1997 and those who live in another country, have already been paid throughout June.

If you have not received your funds on your allocated date, the SSA recommends waiting three working days before contacting them.

Not every Social Security recipient will get the maximum monthly amount of $4,873. The average monthly retirement benefit paid to claimants in January 2024 was $1,907. Social Security payments are calculated using the 35 highest-earning years of your career and are then adjusted for inflation.

On its website, the SSA explains: "The maximum benefit depends on the age you retire. For example, if you retire at full retirement age in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $3,822. However, if you retire at age 62 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $2,710. If you retire at age 70 in 2024, your maximum benefit would be $4,873."

Social Security benefits have increased by 3.2 percent for all claimants this year. The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) tweaks the amount paid every year in line with inflation, and is in place to help benefits keep up with rising costs.

COLA is based on the percentage increase of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) during the third quarter of the year: July, August, and September. The current Congressional Budget Office prediction sits at 2.5 percent—but the final COLA rate won't be announced until October this year.

Current predictions fall considerably short of some of the increases recipients have benefited from in recent years. In 2023, COLA boosted benefits by 8.7 percent due to high inflation rates caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It was the largest single hike in benefit amounts in 40 years.

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